Railways to make two routes 'zero toilet discharge' by October 2

New Delhi: Indian Railways is all set to make its tracks on two routes free from discharge of waste from toilets by installing environment-friendly zero discharge toilet system in the coaches of the trains running on these sections by October 2.

Gearing up to achieve a unique milestone in the 'Swachh Bharat' mission, railways have identified Kanalus-Dwarka-Okha and Porbunder-Wansjalya routes in Gujarat to make it "zero toilet discharge" sections. "Kanalus-Dwarka-Okha and Porbunder-Wansjalya section have been identified to be made 'zero toilet discharge' sections by October 2 this year," Railway Board Member (Mechanical) Hemant Kumar said here today.

The zero toilet discharge section envisages all trains passing on that particular route would have bio-toilets which eliminate open discharge of waste on the rail tracks from the existing toilets. Railways had launched a massive cleaning operation on October 2 last year when the then Railway Minister Sadananda Gowda had led from the front by picking up the broom to clean New Delhi station.

Kumar said Jammu-Katra and Manmadurai-Rameswaram sections would be made a fully green one later this year. Bio-toilets have been introduced in the rail coaches to eliminate open discharge of waste on the track. In the bio- toilets, the waste is digested by specially developed bacteria and only small amount of clean water is discharged.

Kumar said the railways have installed more than 17,000 bio-toilets in trains till March 2015, and has set a target to fit 17,000 more such toilets in this fiscal. It costs about Rs 3 lakh to install four "Zero Discharge Toilet System" in a coach.

Railways is also planning to change the existing ladder in sleeper and AC coaches in order to make them more user-friendly. Ladders have been already changed in the AC-1 coaches and new design for other class coaches are being finalised to be replaced with the existing ones, Kumar said. Railways have joined hands with NID to design a more user- friendly ladders for sleeper and AC class coaches.

Asked about the progress in manufacturing of state-of-the -art 'Anubhuti' rail coach, Kumar said the contract to manufacture the coach had to be awarded again as the contractor awarded the work could not deliver it and also there were pricing issues involved in it. He, however, said Anubhuti project was not in the cold storage and would be manufactured.

The then Railway Minister Pawan Kumar Bansal had announced the introduction of Anubhuti coaches with state-of-the-art facility to passengers of select Rajdhanis and Shatabdis with much fanfare in his Rail Budget 2013.