Mangaluru : Three water-vending machines (WVMs) start functioning at Mangaluru Central railway station on Saturday.

The machines give purified drinking water for as little as Rs. 1 for 300 ml (refill) and Rs. 2 (pet bottle) by the Southern Railways.

The facility on platform 1 was launched by M. Ahammed Bawa, a member of both Kanara Chamber of Commerce and Industry and the Palakkad Divisional Railway Users’ Consultative Committee in the presence of Chief commercial inspector P. Suresan, Railway Protection Force inspector Feroz and others. Two WVMs have been set up on the either ends on Palform 1 and another WVM has been set up on Platform 2.

Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC), which deals with railway ticketing and catering aspects, came up with the WVM initiative. Indian Railways and the IRCTC commenced the WVM initiative by dividing major stations into clusters. Cluster 132 of Palakkad Division comprises 27 units across nine stations.

At present eight units are operational in Palakkad, Kozhikode, Thalassery, and Kannur stations (two each), while three are commissioned at Mangaluru Central. One WVM will also be installed at Mangaluru Junction.

WVM is a fully automated vending machine with filter capacity of 500 liters of chilled water per hour. The units will function from 9 am to 9 pm and there will be a coin-operated counter of one litre dispensing water at odd hours.

The WVM has a seven stage filtration process including multimedia filter, activated carbon filter, RO filter, one micron filter, five micron filter, mineral filter, and ozonator and UV filter.

Along with 300ml, the WVMs will dispense 500 ml of water at Rs. 3 (refill) and Rs. 5 (pet bottle), one litre at Rs. 5 (refill) and Rs. 8 (pet bottle), two litres at Rs. 8 (refill) and Rs. 12 (pet bottle), and five litres at Rs. 20 (refill) and Rs. 25 (pet bottle).