WORLD NEWS World News Indian Rail Minister Promises To Clean Up Train Network
The Indian rail network is known throughout the world, in some instances for all the wrong reasons.
Whether it’s Michael Palin, Karl Pilkington, or more recently Guy Martin, we’ve seen our fair share of TV celebrities travel across India on it’s famed railways, and some of the key things that they all pick up on is the overcrowding and the cleanliness, or rather, the lack thereof.
However, India’s Rail Minister Suresh Prabhu has, in his first budget, promised an affordable, safer, cleaner train journey for its passengers.
In his budget speech, he said: “I am happy to inform the house that this year we have increased the funds
allotment for passenger amenities by 67%.” He added that, at a time when railways face stiff competition from low-cost airlines, his “mix of initiatives” can go a long way in improving the world’s perception of Indian trains.
One of these initiatives is Swachh Rail – or Clean Railways – which Prabhu says is one of his top priorities. He said that a new department will be created to make Indian trains and platforms cleaner, and that environmentally friendly waste-to-energy conversion plants will be set up near major coaching terminals, providing a boost to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Clean India movement.
The Robot Uprising
The dreaded ‘Judgement Day’ prophesised in the Terminator franchise may be upon us, after a South Korean woman was attacked by her robot vacuum cleaner.
The 52-year-old, whose name is being withheld, had to call the emergency services and get them to set her free after her hair got sucked up into the cleaner.
She was sleeping on the floor at her Changwon home when the machine swallowed up a chunk of her hair, apparently mistaking it for dust and fluff, causing her serious pain.
Unable to free herself from the robot, she called the Changwon city fire department with a “desperate rescue plea” to help release her from its clutches.
It took four emergency workers half an hour to free her after opening up the device, according to the South Korean newspaper, the Kyunghyang Shinmun. Luckily she managed to escape serious injury.
In a statement, the fire department said: “This case was quite special. We had seen weird things, but this was a very weird call that we received.”
It is not known whether the woman continues to use the robot cleaner.
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www.tomorrowscleaning.com
Prabhu added that maintaining toilets, something which can be a consistent nightmare on Indian trains, is a tall order, but he still hopes to improve their conditions by installing newer fittings. This year, 17,000 existing toilets on coaches will be replaced with bio-toilets, and new toilets will be built in 650 stations across the country. He also revealed that vacuum toilets, where waste is cleaned using air instead of water, are being designed in the next six months.
Finally, he added that waste disposal bags would be installed in non-AC trains, alongside clean water vending machines.
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