 "Railway Minister inaugurates first green train corridor")
Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu yesterday inaugurated the first green train corridor -Rameswaram-Manamadurai - free from human waste discharge from trains using bio-toilets.
In order to contribute to Swachh Bharat mission launched by Prime Minister, Ministry of Railways have taken up a mammoth task of providing human discharge free bio-toilets in all its coaches and the same would be completed 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. Ministry of Railways have already provided 40,750 bio-toilets in its coaches till June 300, 2016 and in the current financial year, it is planned to fit additional 30,000 bio-toilets.
To mark the beginning of this journey towards ‘Swachh Bharat’, the first green train corridor was inaugurated. The Rameswarm-Manamadurai (114 Kms) track was identified to make it green train corridor - free from human waste discharge from trains. Accordingly, 10 passenger trains consisting of 286 coaches moving over this section have been provided with bio-toilets.
After Rameswarm-Manamadurai, 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 1,110 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. The technology has been developed jointly by Indian Railways (IR) and Defence Research & Development Organization (DRDO) for railway passenger coaches through an 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.