Mysuru: To keep Mysuru Railway Station neat and clean and prevent plastic bottles getting thrown at the platforms, the railway authorities of Mysuru division have installed automatic noiseless plastic bottle crushing machine at Platform No.1. Henceforth, instead of throwing the plastic bottles in station, now the passengers can just dump it into the crushing machine which is set up at the cost of Rs 3.04 Lakh.
The green and clean city of Mysuru, one of the busiest tourist places in Karnataka has a busy railway station too. Mysuru Division is constantly striving to keep station platforms, track and premises clean. With close to 62000 footfalls every day, 6 platforms of the station often get very busy during arrival and departure of the trains. During peak periods of the day, it is observed that considerable number of water bottles are found littered on the platforms. As summer starts, there is an increased consumption of mineral water and the waste generated by used plastic bottles affects the cleanliness of this one of the cleanest railway stations in India. Hence to avoid these plastic bottles, an automatic, noiseless pet bottle crushing machine has been installed on Platform No.1 at Mysuru Railway Station.
The machine starts and stops automatically based on the plastic bottle feed. Once a bottle is inserted, the machine starts automatically and disintegrates the bottle into fine pieces of plastic which are then released. Mysuru Railway Division is in the process of entering into MoU with plastic manufactures for collecting the crushed plastic pieces which will also give sundry revenue to the division. Based upon the experience gained, more such machines shall be installed in other important stations of SWR. Railway is trying to explore the avenue of Corporate Social Responsibility organisations also to promote installation of this eco-friendly system.
Atul Gupta, Divisional Railway Manager, Mysuru division, SWR said, “The initiative helps in many ways including keeping railway station and neat and clean and also enables us to avoid reuse of used water bottles. Already the unit been set up and gradually people start to make maximum use of it.”
