more-in Kurian George, a former executive engineer with the Kerala State Electricity Board (KSEB), who has been campaigning to promote his water-train concept for decades, is all set to fly to the United States for presenting his idea before a group of experts in naval architecture. Mr. George said the proposed ‘water-train’ would be a highly energy-efficient transportation system and one suited for south India, a region blessed with a good number of canals and connected backwaters. “Besides, the region is close to the equator, as a result of which the sea level is almost steady always. With tidal effect having a negligible impact, many canals including the Thiruvananthapuram-Shoranur (T-S) canal and its connected canals, and the Buckingham canal that connected backwaters in Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh, which have been largely unexploited for water transport, is fit for the water-train,” he said. He says that the energy requirement of the water-train to transport one tonne of weight to a distance of one km is 24 BTU (British Thermal Unit), while the corresponding energy requirement of diesel barge is 328 BTU, diesel train 166 BTU and electric train 106 BTU. He will present his concept at the School of Naval Architecture and Marine Engineering in the University of New Orleans, Louisiana, on April 23.

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