More trains to get ‘green toilet’ cover
TIMES NEWS NETWORK
Lucknow: After providing bio-toilets in five pair of trains last year, Railways is planning to bring more trains under the green toilet cover this year. It was in 2010-11, that Railways had started providing the rakes with bio-toilets. Lucknow-Mumbai Pushpak Express was given the new toilet technology last month. Varanasi-Mumbai Mahanagari Express is another train, which has also been identified.
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The effort is a part of Railway’s effort to upgrade cleanliness and hygiene in and around tracks and station area. Bio-toilets are already running in trains like New Delhi-Rewa Express and Gwalior-Barauni Express.
Railway officials say that green toilets aim at zero-defecation on the ground. Thus not only making it a likable sight at stations, but also preventing damage to tracks by way of corrosion. The new toilettechnology also promises to separate the non-degradable waste that passengers mostly flush in toilets, before eventually disposing them. After this, the wastes are disposed at the terminal stations in an environment-friendly manner.
The bio-toilets have been jointly developed by Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) and Railways.
Till March 2012, Railways had set a target to turn out five rakes with 300 bio-toilets by Rail Coach Factory.
The toilets have been designed keeping in mind Indian requirements like long distance travel and toilet habits. The retention tanks will store the waste empty the same at terminal stations into sewage lines thus not dropping the waste all along the track. The solid and liquid waste will be separated in the tank, while liquid will be re-cycled and used, a bacteria will disintegrate the solid waste thus making it non-polluting to the environment.
Currently, train toilets are of direct discharge type. As the Railway network grows and number of passengers increase, open discharge of waste will be a bigger problem. This is one major reason why green toilets are required, officials said.