Tamil Nadu: Manmadurai-Rameswaram rail track to become first green corridor

New Delhi: Stepping up efforts to make rail tracks discharge free zones, Indian Railway will convert into green corridor and zero toilet discharge section the nearly 114 km route between Rameswaram and Manmadurai in Tamil Nadu by the end of this month.

"Currently the trial is going on the route to ensure that the section becomes the first discharge free zone in railways. It will be formally declared as green corridor in the last week of May," said a senior Railway Ministry official involved in the bio-toilet project.

A zero toilet discharge section envisages all trains passing on that particular route would have bio-toilets which eliminate open discharge of waste on the tracks. There are about 14 stations between Rameswaram and Manmadurai and about 16 passenger trains use the track in a day.

All coaches of trains passing through the Manmadurai and Rameswaram section are now equipped with bio-toilets so there will be no waste discharge on the track, said the official. Bio-toilets eliminate open discharge of waste on the track as the waste is digested by specially developed bacteria and only small amount of clean water is discharged in the process.

In the second phase, "Kanalus-Dwarka-Okha and Porbunder-Wansjalya section in Gujarat have been identified to be made zero toilet discharge sections. "Our aim is to make tracks free from discharge of waste from toilets by installing environment-friendly zero discharge toilet system in the coaches and we will do it in phases," he said.

According to the plan, Jammu-Katra route will also be made a zero-discharge section. Railways have installed more than 20,000 bio-toilets in trains till now and has set a target to fit 17,000 more this fiscal. It costs about Rs 3.5 lakh to install four Zero Discharge Toilet Systems in a coach.