Water crisis looms large over Central Railway

Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus (CST) and other important stations like Dadar, Kalyan, Thane and Lokmanya Tilak Terminus (LTT) will suffer a water crisis, as no tanker company has bid for the recent tender brought out by the Central Railways (CR). The water contracts are for supplying water in passenger/outstation trains as well as washing of the local trains in various car sheds in the city.

Tanker companies said that the tenders were not lucrative since they were below market rates and that they could not afford to give the CR water at subsidised rates.

As a result, the CR is slated to see a huge water crisis in the coming week, as its headquarters at CST alone needs 23 lakh litres of water per day. “CST alone needs 23 lakh litres per day for cleaning and washing local and outstation trains. Also, the water is used for storage in outstation trains’ toilets, as well as for taps at various spots on CST’s platforms,” said a senior CR official.

This, coupled with the fact that other stations that see outstation trains as the first or second halt need at least 12 to 14 lakh litres of water per day, has made CR officials anxious. “The BMC supplies the railway with 40 per cent of water. The rest is brought in by tankers but these contractors have been saying that our rates are too low compared to those given by a factory or big residential complexes,” said the official.

As a result of the gap in supply, CR officials have already brought in 8 lakh litres of water in the last week alone and are looking towards Dighe dam, which has been giving water to Navi Mumbai and Thane for the past 10 days. Officials said that at this rate they might have to stop giving this water to the corporations and transport the water towards Mumbai.