Three such centers set up at IIT Kharagpur, IIT Delhi and BHU Varanasi, are being operated with a transparent, open access policy. These centers initiated under the ‘Sophisticated Analytical & Technical Help Institutes (SATHI)’ scheme of Department of Science and Technology, will address the need for building shared, professionally managed, and strong science and technology infrastructure in the country which is readily accessible to academia, start-ups, manufacturing, industry and R&D labs.

DST is planned to set up five SATHI Centers every year for the next four years. SATHI will address the problems of accessibility, maintenance, redundancy and duplication of expensive equipment in our Institutions, while reaching out to the less endowed organizations in need, e.g., industry, MSMEs, startups and state universities. This will also foster a strong culture of collaboration between institutions and across disciplines to take advantage of developments, innovations and expertise in diverse areas.

Besides SATHI initiative, support to 100 top-performing departments in universities, IITs and are being provided for augmentation of their research facilities to global benchmarks. The research profile of the supported departments are being aligned with the national priorities of excellence in manufacturing, waste processing, clean energy and water, Start-up India and so on.

Dr Sharad K. Pradhan, Associate Professor, Department of Mechanical Engineering, National Institute of Technical Teachers’ Training and Research (NITTTR), Bhopal, has developed a Multifunctional Railway Track Scavenging Vehicle with support from the Advanced Manufacturing Technologies programme of the Department of Science & Technology (DST), Government of India aligned with the ‘Make in India’ initiative. A national patent has been published for this technology.

This self-propelled Road cum Rail vehicle equipped with dry and wet suction systems, air and water spraying nozzles, control system, and road cum rail attachment is multifunctional and easy to operate. A display unit is provided for real-time control of the cleaning in a drastically changing environment. It requires only one person along with the driver to carry out the automatic cleaning of the railway track.

Once the dry and wet suction is over, the water nozzles start spraying water jets to clear off any human waste or semi-solid garbage present on the track floor. Another set of nozzles spray disinfectants on the track to get rid of flies, rats, and other insects. Water jets completely remove the human waste and other wet garbage from the inter rail space zone.

Both dry and wet garbage is collected in different tanks, and once filled, it can be decanted at the appropriate local municipal garbage collection point. A joystick-controlled telescoping suction pipe is fitted to clear the slurry from the trench parallel to the track. The telescoping suction pipe can easily be placed at an appropriate position in the side trench to suck the sewage slurry.

As this is a rail cum road vehicle, it can be used as a material/ garbage transport vehicle from track to the road by Indian railways. It can also be used as a maintenance/inspection vehicle and disinfectant spraying vehicle by Indian railways. In non-scavenging mode, it can also be used as a transportation and inspection vehicle by Indian Railways.

After successful development and testing, the developed vehicle can be adopted by Indian railways as a scavenging vehicle for all of its stations. The developed vehicle having low maintenance cost, compact size, reverse and forward movement, and continuous and intermittent action, make it better and effective as compared to existing research endeavours.

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Keywords: self-propelled, railway track, scavenging vehicle, manual scavenging, human waste, railway tracks, Department of Mechanical Engineering, National Institute of Technical Teachers’ Training and Research, NITTTR, DST