Title - Railways seeks NGO help to provide water to passengers

RANCHI: Passengers travelling in trains passing through the Ranchi railway division of South Eastern Railway need not worry about availability of potable water even during peak summer months.To ensure adequate availability of potable water at the stations, the divisional office has engaged NGOs to assist the regular employees. One NGO - Bharat Sevashram Sangh - started the work at Ranchi and Hatia station from Wednesday.Senior divisional commercial manager K S Mukherjee said that keeping in mind manpower shortage and increased demand for potable water for passengers till the arrival of monsoon, it was decided that NGOs should be engaged."We have requested NGOs including the Federation of Jharkhand Chamber of Commerce and Industry and Marwari Yuva Manch to join hands with the railways in the interest of masses who will otherwise face problem of getting potable water. One NGO has started distribution work at the stations and others are likely to join us within a couple of days," he said adding that the railways would ensure availability of quality of water. The NGOs will only provide manpower for distribution of water and it will be used by the railways according to requirement.Mukherjee said the divisional office would also install water coolers at important railway stations of the division. In the first phase, water coolers will be installed at Hatia, Ramgarh, Lohardaga and Muri. Ranchi station has already a chilling plant that supplies cool water directly to the water taps on platforms. "In the second phase, we will install water cooler at all stations which have tap water facility," he added.To ensure availability of safe water at smaller stations and halts, which do not have tap water system in place and have to depend on tube wells, the engineers and health employees have been asked to do a quality check. "We have asked the engineers to check the tube wells and get the water tested by health department staff so that passengers do not face difficulty during the summer months," said the officer.