Chennai: The Minister of Railways, Suresh Prabhu, dedicated on Sunday India’s first ‘green train corridor’ on the 113 km long stretch between Rameswaram and Manamadurai.
All trains passing on this stretch have bio-toilets on them. He inaugurated the stretch through video conferencing from Chennai Central where he also inaugurated a slew of other projects including free WiFi at the station.
“Till date, 36,104 bio-toilets have been provided, and our aim is to provide Indian trains with 30,000 more bio-toilets in 2016-2017, a target that we shall surely exceed,” he added.
“We are inching towards Prime Minister’s dream of creating defecation-free India, and the holy place of Rameswaram is where we thought of initiating it.” The minister was speaking about the importance of a clean country and absence of human excreta on railway tracks, which was once the dream of Mahatma Gandhi. “In the next four years, all the railway tracks of the country will be made defecation free,” he continued.
In Southern Railway, 1255 coaches have been fitted with 3861 bio-toilets so far.
The Rameswaram railway station, which handles 13 pairs of trains every day, has been developed as a ‘Green Station’ as all the trains originating and terminating at Rameswaram have been fitted with bio toilets.
Five hundred and sixty three bio toilets have been fitted in 149 coaches handled by Rameswaram station. The railway minister added that the advantages of having bio-toilets are manifold. “You have cleaner, defecation-free tracks, and also, the maintenance cost of tracks goes down.”
