A view of the new Platform 8 near Kallukuzhi at Tiruchi Railway Junction, which will get facility to water the railway coaches.
| Photo Credit: M. MOORTHY
The Tiruchi Railway Division is putting in place a system on Platform 8 at the Tiruchi Railway Junction to enable watering of coaches of trains.
The platform, which is closer to the Kallukuzhi second entry side of the station, was commissioned in August 2023 with the aim of decongesting the main entrance and reducing the waiting time of incoming trains.
Although Platform 8 was commissioned nearly one-and-a-half years ago, watering of train coaches could not be done as the hydrant pipelines were not in place along this platform. Railway sources said the Tiruchi Railway Division authorities decided to install the system of watering of coaches on Platform 8 and started the work in November last year.
The system of watering the coaches through hydrant pipes is being implemented at a cost of ₹20 lakh. Tiruchi Junction is a major station which continues to remain on top in the division in respect of both originating passenger movements and earnings. It has been nominated as a station for enroute watering of trains passing through it.
Under this system, water from the tank would be sent through the new pipeline on Platform 8 to fill the tanks of rail coaches. The length of Platform 8 is a little over 600 metres and can comfortably accommodate a full rake of 26 coaches. The water hydrant system work is expected to be completed by this month, said railway sources and added that this would pave the way for watering of coaches of trains accommodated on this platform.
Quick watering
The Tiruchi Junction has eight platforms and witnesses movement of several trains every day. Barring Platforms 7 and 8, the remaining ones have a Quick Watering System in place for speedy watering of trains at the station. The Quick Watering System is an app-based remote controlled system wherein the time taken to fill the tanks of coaches with water is minimal. This system was commissioned in March 2024.
The originating trains from the Tiruchi Railway Junction include Cholan, Rockfort, Thiruvananthapuram Intercity, Howrah bi-weekly, Shri Ganganagar, and Jodhpur Weekly Express trains. This station handled a little over 27 lakh originating reserved passengers and over 50 lakh unreserved travellers during the financial year 2023-24 earning a revenue of over ₹165 crore.
Published – February 04, 2025 05:28 pm IST
