Indian Railways and a Bank set out to purify waters across 1,000 stations

MUMBAI: Indian Railways has tied up with YES Bank a private sector bank to provide safe and clean drinking water at Railway station by setting up 1000 community water purification systems across India by 2019.
A release issued by the Bank,which describes itself as the fifth largest private sector bank, on Friday said, “In the first phase of the project, the Bank will set up 100 such systems across D’ and ‘E’ category railway stations in the Konkan belt and other locations in Maharashtra by March 2016.’’
The initiative is being rolled out at the smaller stations with basic water connection and an average footfall of 1000 passengers per day.Close to 50 such systems have been already installed across the Konkan region as of now. “The project boasts of no reject water and minimal electricity consumption for water purification thus reinforcing the bank’s sustainability focus,’’ the release added.
While announcing the project, Namita Vikas, Group President and Country Head, Responsible Banking, YES Bank said “This initiative is in sync with the Government’s vision to make safe and clean drinking water accessible to everyone and its resolve to modernize railway stations. Our aim is to aid the existing efforts undertaken by the Government and ensure a high socio-economic impact through community led interventions.”
She further added “Larger stations have water sellers. The commuter coming to larger stations is better in terms of economic power as compared to those at ‘D’ & ‘E’ category railway stations. This initiative from YES BANK caters to population in the lower strata of the society.” In 2014-15, YES Bank had provided access to safe and clean drinking water to 62,500 individuals through household and community water purification systems across rural Maharashtra.