ECJ EUROPEAN Cleaning Journal

A group of eight teenagers in Mumbai has developed a vacuum cleaning system for train coaches, which impressed top officials and even attracted the attention of railway minister Suresh Prabhu.

The group of students, aged between 12 and 14 years, visited Vadodara and Mumbai stations to study the waste disposal in train coaches. They then designed a system which provides for split vents in each compartment (bay) of the coach with a foot pedal for passengers to deposit their rubbish.

The rubbish will then be sucked in with the vacuum system and collected in waste chambers under the coach. There will be three waste collection chambers under each coach. The students estimated each passenger will generate five litres of waste.

The students have demonstrated their work to railway officials, who have found it to be a "working model".