NWR starts serving tea in kulhad at 22 stations in Raj

Acting on the directives from the railway board to promote terracotta, all 25 railway stations of the North Western Railways out of which 22 are in Rajasthan now serve tea and other food items in Kulhad.

On September 9, 2018, the North-Western Railway had directed zonal officers to take steps for ensuring the use of green catering products at these places. Union railway minister Piyush Goyal directed the board to issue directions to use terracotta products instead of single-use plastic. Following which the zonal commercial officers had written to their counterparts and urged them to ensure that vendors at the stations should start using terracotta serving catering items.

These 25 stations include Bikaner, Sirsa, Bhiwani, Hanumangarh, Shri Ganganagar, Hisar, Churu, Suratgarh, Jodhpur, Pali, Barmer, Nagpur, Jaisalmer, Bhagat Ki Kothi, Luni, Jaipur, Jhunjhuna, Dausa, Gandhi Nagar, Durgapura, Sikar, Ajmer, Udaipur, Sirohi Road and Abu Road.

The stations which adopted it initially are Bikaner, Hanumangarh, Sriganganganagar, Churu, Suratgarh, Jodhpur, Pali, Barmer, Nagpur, Jaisalmer, Bhagat Ki Kothi, Luni, Jaipur, Jhunjhunu, Dausa, Gandhi Nagar, Durgapura, Sikar, Ajmer, Udaipur, Sirohi Road and Abu road of Rajasthan. The three other stations which fall outside Rajasthan and where terracotta products have been introduced include Sirsa, Bhiwani, Hisar in Haryana.

However while the terracotta products have been introduced but still the vendors are using the paper cups for tea and other products. "We have introduced terracotta but there are some vendors who still serve tea in the paper glasses. we are not stopping that but ensuring that the single-use plastic is strictly banned" Abhay Sharma, chief public relations officer, NWR told DH.

In an attempt to support the potters and the move of Indian Railways, the Khadi and Village Industries Commission (KVIC) is planning to distribute 50,000 electric pottery wheels to meet the demand of 400 Railway Stations in the country.

Earlier also in 2018 KVIC launched Kumhar Sashaktikaran Yojnar to empower Kumhar(potter) community and distributed 10,000 electric pottery wheels replacing the old hand-spun wheels.