Coimbatore based marketing executive, Parvathi Krishnan is a frequent traveller. In her 30s, she is a fitness freak and is very cautious about her weight. She is more than happy with the news of Body Mass Index (BMI) kiosk that recently came into being at the Coimbatore Junction railway station so that she can keep a watch.

“I will be travelling to Chennai on Monday and I will surely stop by this machine and check if my weight is proportional to my height. All this time I was only worried about my weight. This will help keep my weight under check.” Parvathi says.

This kiosk will educate its user about their height, weight and the BMI of the individual for free. In addition to this, the machine will also advice the user on requirement of water intake based on his or her BMI. Users at the railway stations can take advantage of all this and more for free of cost.

All this information can be shared by the machine through an SMS if the user shares his/ her mobile number. Once the mobile number is entered, the machine sends a comparative report of the users BMI every time the user makes use of this service at the railway stations.

The Salem division of Southern Railways has installed BMI kiosks in five of the major stations- Coimbatore, Salem, Tirupur, Erode and Karur. These BMI kiosks have been installed by M/s Orange Innovations and Amsoft Services at a total cost of rupees two-and-a-half-lakhs.

There is no investment made on behalf of the railways as these kiosks have been installed on advertisement revenue basis. Instead, the contractors will pay a lease amount to the railways in return for making use of its premises. The contractors will also share a part of their revenue with the railways.

While expressing his happiness over the new BMI kiosks that have been installed by Salem division Shubhranshu, Division Railway Manager, Salem said “We are positive that these kiosks will go a long way in helping passengers to live a healthy life. We will install such kiosks in other junctions and stations that are under the jurisdiction of the Salem division.”

A report from the Indian Medical Research Council (IMRC) stated that the average weight for men is 60-kilograms and for women it is 55-kilograms. As per the recommendations of the IMRC, the healthy BMI for men of the age group 18 to 29 years is 20.3, 60-kilograms of weight and 1.73-meters is the regarded as the ideal height.

For women of the same age group the recommended BMI is 21.1 with weight being 55-kilograms and 1.61-meters is the recommended height. This goes to point out that an average working male requires about 2,730 calories and an average Indian female requires around 1,900 to 2,000 calories.