#transformindia

The Barsi Light Railway between Latur and Miraj in Maharashtra was a pre-independence private company.) And set up a private company with a share capital of Rs. 7,014,477. The company's office was permanently located at Winchester House, Broad street, London. The Narrow-Gauge Railway, 2 feet 6 inches wide, was started on March 1, 1897, just 9 feet wide along Kurduwadi Barshi Road. The company's India office was initially located in Barshi and later in Kurduwadi. A. L. Alexander was appointed chief manager and agent. The duo of Alexander and Calthrop brought BLR a golden day by night. His salary was 2200 and 1500 rupees per month.

Even on Ashadi Ekadashi, people used to sit not only on the train tracks but also in front of the locomotives. The company was expanding day by day. Initially, the train stopped at Pandharpur near the river. He then spent Rs 8,66,000 on the bridge over the river Bhima and the next line, hence the name of the railway bridge at Pandharpur, the ‘Willington Bridge’. This company helps you to understand some interesting things in history. According to this, only Barshi light railway came and Kurduwadi village was formed. In fact, until 23 October 1914, Kurduwadi was known as Barsi Road and the English pronounced Barsi as Barsee till the end and after 1870 as Barsi.

According to the BLR Company's 1912 annual annuity, the Pandharpur Yatra of Karthiki Ekadashi in November 1911 had to be canceled due to plague and the Ashadi Yatra of July 2012 had to be canceled due to cholera. This means that from 1911 to 1912, the Pandharpur temple was closed due to an epidemic and it helps to understand that the concept of lockdown existed even 90 years ago. As a result, the company lost Rs 41,650 due to non-arrival of 4,53,768 passengers. The following example shows how advanced the English were. Accordingly, in 1897, a company was raised and capital was raised from the people through shares to build a large industry. There was a 4% bonus for 10 euros per share. The Prince of Wales Fund, set up by the London government, provided 500 euros in financial support to the Barsi Light Railway Company, which suffered financial losses due to an epidemic in 1911-12 and immediately after World War I in 1914.

The land required for the company was provided free of cost by the government. In 1930, a large workshop was set up at Kurduwadi. Even though the engine of Kingston Company was from London, it was customary for a Marathi man to keep his verbal name in Marathi like Rukmini etc. Coal-powered engines took a long time to generate steam, so sometimes a train would stop for hours at a station. In the Ramling Ghat of Yedshi, a double engine was needed. Before the arrival of the train, especially in the forest area, a horseman used to run and inspect the railway line to see if there was any obstruction. The speed of the vehicle was so low in Ramalinga ghat that sometimes if the animal came horizontally, the driver would get down and push the animal aside and then the vehicle would move forward. While the work of Kusalamb to Tadwala line is being started by Pathak and Walchand Company, the Chief Engineer of the company A. L. Alexander liked the pindi-shaped hill of Durga Devi near Ramalinga and built a very beautiful rest house in 1907, ordering literature from England. Even today it is just as strong and its lighting, meeting, cooking, hunting, cold water is all worth seeing.

On January 1, 1954, Barshi Light Railway Company was acquired by the Ministry of Railways, India. Later, its route changed in some places, but the people of Latur Osmanabad area will never enjoy sitting in this train without Ramling station. Even today, in some places, old rules and station name plates are lying. When he looked at it, he remembered the puffy smoke, the whistle of the engine, the driver of the coal and the embers in the engine, the memories of God's car are fresh. All the credit for this memorable moment goes to a visionary engineer named Everrard Calthrop, who made it a reality by experimenting with a 2.6-inch-wide railway in India.

Reference:

Indian Railways serve 7,000 stations and 22 million passengers daily. Indian Railways commits to provide clients with safe and trustworthy train services, as well as clean and hygienic surroundings on trains and in stations. There are only 1600 long-distance trains. Suburban trains cover an average of 42 km. The remaining 4700 trains are estimated to be 3100 passenger trains traveling 50 to 250 km and 1600 mail/express trains operating 300 to 2400 km. Mail and fast trains are filthy. Both must be addressed. Even if we haven't done so, it would be fascinating to look at the train profile's duration and time (two or more nights or one night and arriving early in the morning) in terms of biological functioning and cultural norms. In the early days of the IR, lower-class train coaches had no bathrooms. On July 2, 1909, Babu Okhil Chandra Sen complained to Sahibganj [1].

Here's the letter

Later, all lower-class trains traveling over 50 kilometers were expected to have bathrooms added. Trains over 150km must have bathrooms in every compartment.

Indian Railways is testing three toilet models.

1.      Modular Toilet

The IR rebuilt the coach toilets to be more pleasant and modern. The revised toilets are created as fibre reinforced plastic modules that may be installed directly inside coaches in place of conventional toilets. Jan Shatabdi railway cars now have modular toilets. With the modular toilet, waste is stored in a sealed tank, eliminating the need for dirtying stations. When train speed surpasses 40 km/h, the tank is steadily emptied. There is no environmental impact because the discharge occurs in the broad countryside. 7.5 lakh per coach for modular toilets. It will be part of IR's Operation Cleanliness.

2.      Chemical Toilet

The RDSO of the IR has developed specifications for train toilet systems. Standard mainline rolling stock requires a vacuum toilet system to flush toilet waste to a collection/retention tank located below the under the frame. The toilet system should provide a sealed commode with an effective flushing mechanism and an odor-free interior for IR main line broad gauge (BG) coaches. There are four toilets in each IR mainline passenger coach. One or two toilets on some coaches. The coach type determines the quantity and type of toilets. No discharge of trash. No spilling of wastes on the bogie parts, undergear, or track.

3.      Bio Toilet

The IR had tried chemical toilets on long-distance trains, but they were not successful in terms of odour and disposal frequency. Other countries, however, employ this in planes and railways. Instead of keeping waste in a hole or piping it to a sewage treatment plant, a chemical toilet disinfects it using chemicals. The blue pigment in the bowl water identifies these toilets on flights and trains. Alternatively, a chemical toilet can be made by mixing chemicals with water in a container or bucket. These can be found on intercity buses or in dwellings without indoor plumbing.

As a result, IR is currently focused on bio-toilets developed with DRDO. Bacteria digest garbage. CO2 and methane are discharged into the atmosphere. Any remaining liquid can be discharged onto the tracks. Rats and fish were not harmed by the wastewater in experiments. They have been installed in about 5,500 trains since 2011. Passenger train bio-toilets not only reduce track littering by roughly 2,74,000 gallons per day but also save the Indian Railways around Rs 400 crore yearly. Indian Railways has installed 2,58,906 bio-toilets in 73,078 carriages, helping to keep railway tracks clean. A bio-toilet is a dry toilet that composes human waste. Methane gas, carbon dioxide gas, and water are produced from the decomposition of human excretory waste in the digester tank [2].

References:

1. Toilet and Trains, G. Raghuram (IIM Ahmedabad), August 2007.