Staff Reporter, Guwahati: The Northeast Frontier Railway (NFR), under General Manager Chetan Kumar Shrivastava, has partnered with IIT Guwahati, led by Professor Vimal Katiyar, to replace conventional plastic with biodegradable and compostable materials. Developed at IIT Guwahati’s in-house R&D facility, the ISO 17088-compliant bio-plastic degrades quickly in compost, offering an eco-friendly alternative to single-use plastic. As a pilot initiative, NFR has introduced green bed-roll bags on trains, replacing the plastic bags used for distributing linen to passengers. The formal rollout will take place on August 15, India’s 79th Independence Day, with around 40,000 eco-bags distributed across 25 trains originating from terminals in Assam, West Bengal, Bihar, Tripura, and Arunachal Pradesh. NFR has long been committed to green initiatives, including rapid railway electrification, solar power generation, AI-based intrusion detection systems to protect elephants, rainwater harvesting, automatic coach washing plants, bio-toilets, mechanized cleaning, composting of solid waste, afforestation, and transforming wastelands into green zones. The inoculum generation plant at Kamakhya has been instrumental in recycling biodegradable waste, enabling used bed-roll bags to be reprocessed into new ones, further cutting plastic pollution. This collaboration with IIT Guwahati represents a scalable approach to sustainable railway operations. By integrating durable, eco-friendly solutions into daily passenger services, NFR aims to reduce landfill waste, lower its carbon footprint, and conserve natural resources. With this initiative, NFR not only improves passenger convenience but also reinforces its role as a leader in aligning operational efficiency with environmental responsibility — setting an example for the railway sector and the communities it serves.
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