HYDERABAD: Serious efforts are being made by the South Central Railway to fit 200 bio-toilets in trains by the end of the current financial year. Besides, bio-toilets will be fitted in another 50 coaches in the next financial year (2016-17).
SCR has so far fitted nearly 2,000 such toilets in 600 coaches so far in Telangana, Hussainsagar, Mumbai, Padmavathi, Visakha, Manuguru, Yeswanthpur, Gautami, Bengaluru, Amaravati, Nagpur, Nagarsole, Machilipatnam express trains.
At the all-India level, more than 19,500 bio-toilets have been installed in about 7,000 coaches of over 300 trains.
Speaking to Express, SCR chief public relation officer M.Umashankar Kumar said SCR, aiming to provide hygienic environment to passengers and to keep station premises and tracks clean, developed environment-friendly bio-toilets for which the technology has been developed jointly by the Indian Railways (IR) and the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO).
In the bio-toilets the waste retention tanks are fitted below the coach floor underneath the lavatories. The human waste discharged is collected there is acted upon by a colony of anaerobic bacteria that convert human waste into water and bio-gases (methane and carbon dioxide). The gases escape into the atmosphere and waste water is discharged after chlorination on to the track. Raw human waste thus does not fall on the railway tracks.
DRDO scientists developed the specific anaerobic bacteria. The waste is stored in stainless steel tanks called bio-digester tanks. The anaerobic bacteria disintegrate waste into carbon dioxide, methane gas and liquid waste water. The water is chlorinated and released onto the track. The system does not require oxygen supply nor frequent cleaning.
A sample of effluent from the tank is tested periodically for assessing the functioning of the bio-digester. “We monitor the effluent’s parameters like pH value, COD levels, faecal coliform count and others. If any sample fails in the parameter of target values, the test is repeated. If it fails again, fresh inoculum (bacteria) is sent into the bio tanks and retesting is done,” Umashankar Kumar said.
Though the usage of bio-toilets by passengers is found to be encouraging, toilets are getting jammed as many passengers are throwing plastic bottles and other solid materials into them.
To create awareness in users, SCR is pasting stickers in toilets requesting passengers to throw waste only in the dustbin provided inside the toilet.