Worried about water shortage due to deficient rainfall, the Railway Boardhas asked all zonal railways to submit their contingency plans.

The Railway Board’s Land and Amenities Directorate, which deals with the supplyof water to stations, trains and railway colonies, has written a letter to allzonal headquarters, asking them to furnish details of their plans to ensuresmooth supply of water in their respective areas.

“We don’t organise supply of water directly from New Delhi. It is done by thezonal offices. But, as we are getting reports about delayed monsoon, we areworried about supply of water in trains and other places. So, we have asked ourzonal offices to let us know about their contingency plans,” said a directorateofficial.

There are 8,241 railway stations in the country as of March 2008. But, RailwayMinister Mamata Banerjee and railway brass are worried, because out of these, 962stations belong to Northern Railway and fall in areas where delayed monsoon hasalready translated into water crisis.

According to the railways’ estimate, a 22-coach long-distance passenger trainrequires 40,000 litres of water during its average journey time of 18 hours.New Delhi station alone requires more than 6 million litres of water for dailyconsumption.

Apart from the trains, the railways also maintain more than 65,000 staffquarters all over India. The supply there is also managed by the directorate.

Rail Bhawan, the ministry’s headquarters, has got reports about water scarcityin key North Indian stations like Varanasi Cantonment and Allahabad. In NewDelhi, the railways have three rain-fed wells. But it depends on the Delhi JalBoard (DJB) for almost 60 per cent of its water needs in stations and otherestablishments. In Varanasi, the total demand is 300,000 litres for theCantonment station, 200,000 litres for railway colonies and 50,000 litre forother attached stations