MCF, Raebareli emerges as railways' most green unit

The Modern Coach Factory (MCF) at Raebareli is the most green unit of the Indian Railways, according to the CII's GreenCo rating, the first such workshop of the national transporter to have achieved this milestone, officials said on Tuesday.

The GreenCo Rating System of the Confederation of Indian Industries (CII) is a first-of-its-kind rating system in the world that facilitates companies in improving their overall green performance.

Over the last three years, the MCF, which has received the "Platinum" rating, has reduced its fresh water consumption by 64 per cent per coach, energy consumption by 53 per cent per coach and paper usage by 54 per cent, according to official data.

The factory has developed six rainwater harvesting pits consisting of 12 borewells in its workshops and 13 rainwater harvesting pits in the township.

It has also developed six artificial waterbodies with an approximate capacity of 60,000 kl to collect surface runoff and use it for recharging groundwater and irrigation purposes.

This has brought down the factory's fresh water consumption by 64 per cent per coach in the last three years.

The MCF has reduced its energy consumption by 53 per cent per coach in the last three years with the use of energy-efficient fittings and process optimisation.

The factory has also installed the biggest solar power plant of the railways, which has a capacity of 3 MW, at a project cost of Rs 22.86 crore.

It has also reduced emission of carbon-dioxide by 44 per cent per coach in the said period.

Usage of paper has also come down by 54 per cent at the factory thanks to e-tendering and other paperless systems.

The MCF has developed a new painting process -- wet-on-wet painting -- which has reduced the process time by half and it is now capable of manufacturing 1,425 coaches from the earlier shop capacity of 750.