Green Corridors in Indian Railways
Oxygen in a cryogenic state is a hazardous chemical. The Railways have initiated green corridor service for medical oxygen transportation to ensure safe and fast transportation. In a cryogenic state, additional care needs to be given for sudden acceleration and deceleration. Also, pressures are checked in between, especially when it is in a loaded condition.
Indian Railways took oxygen express as a challenge and successfully ran the first oxygen express from Kalamboli to Vizag and back up to Nasik.
Note: Trained workforce and particular size tankers carry the medical oxygen to the destination from the production units or plants.
Essential care for medical oxygen transportation
- Height is a crucial aspect in the movement of oxygen in the cryogenic state.
- The model of road tanker T1618 with a height of 3320 mm was found feasible to be placed on flat wagons.
- The longer route via Vasai was charted as Over Dimensional Cargo (ODC) is not permitted to travel in Ghat sections over the Mumbai division.
What is Green Corridor?
- A green corridor is demarcated, cleared out special road route created for an ambulance that enables retrieved organ or organs meant for transplant to reach the destined hospital.
- Note: In the context of hospitals, a 'green corridor' is also known as a wildlife corridor, or a biological corridor or a habitat corridor is a strip of land established to enable the bridging of habitat populations that have been disturbed due to anthropogenic activities such as road construction, human settlement etc.
What is Ro-Ro Service?
- The Roll-on-Roll-off service was launched by Indian Railways for Konkon Railways in 1999.
- Ro-Ro service facilitates multi-modal transport mix. Presently, Indian Railways operate its freight and parcel trains to deliver essential service pan-India.
- Under this service, loaded trucks are moved on flat rakes to avoid traffic congestion. Around 44 loaded trucks can be carried in a rake.
Green Corridor in Indian Railways
- Green Corridors are part of the Go Green Mission of Indian Railway programme. To ensures zero toilet discharge on rail tracks Green Rail Corridor, a 114-km long Rameswaram-Manamadurai stretch in Tamil Nadu in 2016.
- Note: Green Corridors facilitate discharge of free bio-toilets in all its coaches. Primarily, six green corridors were made functional in 2016-17 and 21 in 2017-18, in them bio-toilets were also enabled.
Significance of green corridors in Indian Railways
- As India is dealing with the unprecedented crisis of coronavirus disease (Covid-19), Indian railways are gearing up to run special "Oxygen Express" trains to transport liquid medical oxygen (LMO) and oxygen cylinders across the country. Availability of oxygen is a critical element in the treatment of certain medical conditions in the Covid infection.
- The Ro-Ro model is a more economical mode of transport and economical as it is fuel saving compared to road transport.
Existing Green corridors in Indian Railway
- Barmer-Munawab and Pipad Road-Bilara rail routes, Rajasthan in North Western Railway.
- Rameswaram-Manamadurai stretch (114 km long) in Tamil Nadu is the country's first green rail corridor.
- Okha-Kanalus and Porbandar-Wasjaliya railway sections of Gujarat
- 22 projects comprising 7,500 km of greenfield expressways and corridors are planned to be completed by FY25 at the cost of ₹3 lakh crore.
About the green rail corridors
- The Green Corridor is a commitment to a clean environment under the 'Swachh Rail-Swachh Bharat' initiative
- Trains in the green corridor have been fitted with bio-toilets, which ensure zero discharge of human waste on the rail tracks, thereby improving cleanliness and hygiene
- The green corridor is aimed at contributing towards the 'Swachh Bharat Abhiyan' initiated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, and the Indian Railways have set the target of providing bio-toilets in all the coaches by September 2019
- Over 50,000 bio-toilets have been made operational, and more are underway
- The initiative is also said to bring down the maintenance cost significantly
- Indian Railway developed environment-friendly bio-toilets in association with the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO)
- Bio-toilets store the discharge in a biodigester tank, which has anaerobic bacteria, fitted underneath the train coach in a small space
- The bacteria can convert human faecal matter into water and a small amount of gases like Methane.
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