Get ready for a cleaner rail experience soon. Following up on subsequent Budget promises by railway minister Mamata Bannerjee and her predecessor Lalu Prasad of introducing green toilets on trains, the railways ministry is now set to start trial runs for trains fitted with such toilets.
Test runs on a Shatabdi train as well as a long distance train are expected to begin later this year. The railway ministry has revived tender invited in 2006 for the green toilets, which will be provided by Escorts Railway Equipment Division and Evac. “We are in talks with the railways for conducting trials of green toilets on one or two rakes. These will begin in the next six months to one year,” said Manoj Jha, executive vice-president (engg division), Escorts Group.
Green toilets will not only help keep tracks and railway platforms clean by ensuring that the waste is discharged at designated places but will also ensure longevity of tracks, which get eroded by the waste that is released on them.
Although, the ministry has been tinkering with the idea of green toilets for quite some time now, it is exploring two options ? a vacuum toilet system and a bio-toilet. A vacuum toilet system works through a vacuum assisted suction of waste, which is retained in an under slung storage tank. It is evacuated at the terminal and then discharged into the dispose system.
On the other hand, a bio-toilet uses microbes to disintegrate the waste into small particles, which is finally turned into inactive and harmless gases and liquid. This is then being discharged onto the track. A final decision will be based on the cost and efficiency of the two products, Jha said.
Meanwhile, realising that test runs and evaluation of various technologies would be time consuming, the railway ministry last year decided to install controlled discharge toilet system (CDTS) in all new coaches, being manufactured by the rail coach factory (RCF) in Kapurthala and the integral coach factory (ICF) at Chennai. About 400 coaches are now fitted with these new toilets that collect the waste in a separate tank installed under the toilet seat and discharges onto the track only after the train reaches a speed of 30 kilometre per hour and is out of the station area.
Since 2006, the railways has taken out two tenders for green toilets for its objective to fit all its 9,000 trains with green toilets by 2011-12. While the 2006 tender for a vacuum toilet system have now been revived, it is being reworked for design and cost issues. Similarly, last year, it had invited bids for bio-toilets, but design flaws once again derailed the project.