NEW DELHI: Tamil Nadu’s Rameswaram-Manamadurai corridor is all set to become railways first green corridor, free from human waste discharge from trains, with Railway Minister Suresh inaugurating it Sunday.
Ten passenger trains consisting of 286 coaches moving over the Rameswarm-Manamadurai (114 Kms) track have been provided with bio-toilets. The inauguration function will happen at Chennai Railway Station.
Okha-Kanalas Junction (141 Kms), Porbandar-Wansjaliya (34 Kms) and Jammu-Katra (78 Kms) would also be taken up for making them free from human waste discharge from trains. For this around 35 trains consisting of nearly 1110 coaches would be further provided with bio toilets and the work is underway.
These sections and stations were chosen, because the number of trains originating and terminating at these stations and sections are few, thus making it operationally easier and faster to make them human-discharge free.
Indian Railways in its commitment to provide hygienic environment to passengers and to keep station premises/tracks clean, have developed environment-friendly bio-toilets for its passenger coaches. Ministry of Railways will provide human discharge free bio-toilets in all its coaches by September 2019. With provision of bio-toilets in all its coaches discharge of human waste from trains on to the ground would be completely stopped which in turn would help in improving cleanliness and hygiene.
About 40,750 bio-toilets have been fitted till June 30, 2016 and in the current financial year, it is planned to fit additional 30,000 bio-toilets.
The technology has been developed jointly by Indian Railways (IR) and Defence Research & Development Organization (DRDO) for railway passenger coaches through a MoU. This environment friendly, low cost and robust technology, is the first of its kind in railway systems in the world. In the bio-toilet fitted coaches, human waste is collected in tanks below the toilets and the same is decomposed by a consortium of bacteria.