Jamshedpur, Feb 10: The newly built eight water vending machines have been made operational for passengers at Tatanagar railway station on Friday. Following this, railway passengers will get half a litre of water in just Rs 3. Similarly, one litre of water for Rs.5. Railway passengers will get two litres of water for Rs 8 and 5 litres for Rs 20.
This facility is available to the railway passengers after one year. Even before this facility was available to the railway passengers, but due to the dispute, the railway passengers were deprived of the facility.
According to the changing times, railway passengers have also been given the facility to pay online for taking water from the water vending machine. This facility is being given for the reason that all railway passengers will not need to pay retail money. Railway passengers can avail water facilities even by paying cash.
The South Eastern Railway (SER) has decided to install water vending machines (WVM) at the railway station to provide purified drinking water to passengers at a competitive price.
The Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC), a subsidiary of the ministry of railways, is implementing the project.
Due to this facility, the passengers can get purified drinking water starting at a cost of Re three only. We will put up more machines in phases keeping the crowd and demand in mind, he added.
An official said a passenger could get 500ml of water for Re 3. “If a passenger has no bottle to fill water, s/he can buy a bottle from the machine operator. Then the person has to pay Rs 2 for 300ml of water with a container,” it added. Similarly, passengers can get purified water through reverse osmosis process at Rs 3 for 500 ml (Rs 5 with bottle), Rs 5 for one litre (Rs 8 with bottle) and Rs 8 for two litre (Rs 12 with bottle) and Rs 20 for five litres (Rs 25 with bottle). People buy a bottle of packaged drinking water at the cost of Rs 15 to Rs 20 a litre. But WVMs will provide water at a much lower rate.
“Our drinking water is purified based on the standards prescribed by the World Health Organisation (WHO),” said an IRCTC officer.
