East Coast Railway to ban single-use plastic at railway stations, trains from Oct 2

Responding to Prime Minister Narendra Modi's call, East Coast Railway (ECoR) will get rid of single-use plastics at railway stations in its jurisdictions and trains by October 2.

General Manager, East Coast Railway Vidya Bhushan on Wednesday administered an oath to its employees and officers not to use plastic in their day to day life and to aware others about the impact on the environment.

The employees have been asked to reduce, reuse and refuse plastic products and to use reusable bags to reduce plastic usages.

Later, the general manager along with other senior officials and staff participated in Shram Dan programme where plastic wastages have been cleared from Rail Sadan premises.

ECoR has also encouraged its vendors to avoid the use of plastic carry bags.

"Indian Railways have taken major steps for green initiatives that include, electrical energy generating from solar & wind system, installing environment-friendly bio-toilets in passenger coaches, electrification of railway lines, Use of LED Lights, plantation at railway trackside, saplings, Water Recycling Plants, Rain Water Harvesting systems, etc," an official release said.

East Coast Railway has installed 16 numbers of Plastic Bottle Crushing Machines at different Railway Stations over its jurisdiction so that single-use plastic bottles can be recycled. It has also been proposed to install plastic bottle crushing machines over the jurisdiction of East Coast Railway in the future.

The railway said that awareness programme will be run to make train passengers aware to use this machine in order to maintain cleanliness at the premises of railway stations.