Cleanzine: your weekly cleaning and hygiene industry newsletter 18th April 2024 Issue no. 1110
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Teens wow officials with train coach cleaning system
Eight students in Mumbai have developed a novel vacuum cleaning system for train coaches, in a project said to have impressed cleaning officials even attracted the attention of railway minister Suresh Prabhu. The students - five of whom are US citizens and all aged 12-14 - visited Vadodara and Mumbai stations to study the rubbish disposal in train coaches before devising the cleaning system.
The system is designed to provide for split vents in each compartment of the coach, operated by a foot pedal, which enables passengers to deposit their rubbish. The rubbish is then sucked into a vacuum system which pulls it to a rubbish chamber under the coach. Each coach has three collection chambers - necessary because the students estimated that each passenger will generate five litres of rubbish.
Times of India reports that the students, from Juhu and Andheri, working as part of the Robotics club, demonstrated their work to rail officials from the Environment and Housekeeping directorate and mechanical (coaching) directorate.
The officials are said to have found the system to be a "working model" and that they subsequently asked the Research Design & Standards Organisation to look into the design, which has already won first prize at IIT, Mumbai's TechFest.
"The model primarily looked feasible," said a senior railway official.
9th February 2017