Minister of Railways Suresh Prabhakar Prabhu inspected and flagged off the newly manufactured Guard Van of Goods (Freight) Train today, i.e. 05th October 2016 at Delhi Safdarjung Railway Station. The newly manufactured Guard Van of Goods Train (8 wheeled) has been equipped for the first time with Solar powered Light, Fan, Mobile Charging Point along with the facility of Zero discharge Bio Toilet. On this occasion, Member Rolling Stock, Railway Board Shri Hemant Kumar, Member Traffic, Railway Board Shri Mohammed Jamshed, Financial Commissioner Railways, Shri KV Nanda, were also present.Speaking on the occasion Shri Suresh Prabhu has said that these facilities will improve the working conditions and functioning of the guards. He also said that powering Fans & Lights through Solar Panels will help in reducing the carbon footprint of Railways. He also said that Indian Railways will pursue to initiate more such initiatives. He further said that, Indian Railways has always kept in mind providing good working conditions to its workers and customers. He said that use of Solar energy is also an environment friendly measure and will help in energy saving. Shri Suresh Prabhu said that Indian Railways is also working to run fully solar powered trains.
Guards of freight trains have been working under difficult condition of absence of basic facilities of light & fan that too during heat of summers and darkness of night work. Indian Railways has now attempted to address this shortcoming by providing light and fan arrangement in brake-vans which so far have been a distant dream of the Guards.The Guard vans (also called 8 wheeled Brake Vans Z- frame Improved BVZI) modified by IROAF with the assistance of Amritsar Workshop of Northern Railway are provided with a fan, a light and mobile charging facility which are supported by Solar Power generation at the rooftop. Thus the power now being available for Guard comfort is environment friendly, as it does not generate any emission / pollution. The Solar generation is supported with a battery bank to power the brake van facilities for more than 24 hours continuously even on a rainy day. Thus it is expected to provide uninterrupted comfort of basic facilities to the Guard.The system provided has the GPRS support which enables monitoring of the functioning of this system so that necessary maintenance inputs can be made available as and when needed to achieve uninterrupted service.n keeping with the country’s commitment to make India a ‘Swachh Bharat’, the Guard’s toilet has also been modified to a zero discharge bio toilet. This design of bio-toilet results in no discharge of night soil on the track thus providing a hygienic surroundings in an around the Railway premises.