Indian Railways’ ambitious plan to install ‘green’ toilets in all its 9,000 trains by 2011-12 have got postponed once again, with the process of tendering for procurement of biotoilets being scrapped last week. A revised tender agreement is likely to be approved by the Railway Board shortly.
According to a ministry official, trial runs for introducing biotoilets in coaches had been largely successful. However, a few hitches arose out of “mala fide utilisation”. “Non-bio-degradable materials like bottles, plastics, clothes had been found in digesters which were obstructing the functioning of the systems. We have asked the suppliers to modify the designing so that the entry of such matter can be prevented.”
Escorts Railway Equipment Division, who hoped to provide biotoilets to the railways, are hopeful the tender would be revived soon. “Since we used a home-grown technology for developing the product, we will be able to adapt to the new specification very fast,” Manoj Jha, vice-president (engg division), Escorts, told Business Standard.
The industry, he added, would like some changes in the tender regulations. “The tender had specified the use of aerobic technology for biotoilets. We want to be permitted to use environment-friendly technology, irrespective of whether it is aerobic or anaerobic for developing these systems. The ministry has now agreed to our contention ”
The revised tender agreement could be approved this month. Once the modifications to the systems are attended to, the tender is expected to be floated again.
The railways had floated a tender for procuring biotoilets for 500 coaches this year at Rs 1.7 lakh per system. It was to invest around Rs 8 lakh per coach for installing these environment-friendly toilets. Trial runs had been conducted on 17 coaches of the Rewa Express, between Delhi and Rewa in Madhya Pradesh.
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Boitoilets use a patented bacteria culture to disintegrate the waste into small particles, which is then converted into harmless gases and liquids. These toilets are completely environment-friendly and they ensure longevity of tracks, which get eroded by the waste released on them.
Lalu Prasad, when minister,.had announced a provision of Rs 4,000 crore for installing “zero-discharge green toilets” in 36,000 coaches in the eleventh plan period. But the project has made little headway till date, with the railways experimenting with utilising biotoilets as well as vacuum toilets. A vacuum toilet system operates through a vacuum-assisted suction of waste, which is retained in a storage tank and evacuates later at designated terminals.
Meanwhile, as evaluation of various technologies is proving to be time-consuming, the ministry has instructed the Rail Coach Factory at Kapurthala to install a controlled discharge toilet system in all new coaches. Waste in this system is disposed onto the tracks after the train attains a speed of 35 km/hr. “It is not fully environment-friendly,” a ministry official conceded, adding that the next set of trial runs with modified biotoilets will provide the solution.