As one enters the Grand Hotel in Maharashtra’s Latur city, a lush green lawn immediately grabs attention. The old gardener quietly goes about his work, watering the lawn. Just then, a vehicle comes in, empties the water in an underground tank below the lawn and leaves.
A train carrying five lakh litres of water pulled into Latur early morning on April 13 as cheers filled the air, several hours behind schedule and with far less water than originally planned. Latur, nearly 500 kms from the state capital of Mumbai, has been scorched by drought.
The train with 10 wagons specially designed to hold and transport water took 18 hours instead of six to cover nearly 300 kilometres from Miraj in western Maharashtra to its destination.