Tamil Nadu Railways Becomes First To Install Bio-Toilets Across 286 Coaches

Squatting over a hole that is the ‘toilet’ in Indian trains is indeed our last resort when we can’t hold that spicy biryani we may have indulged in on a long journey. The good news is that this is about to change. The dreaded hole is being replaced by much more clean and green technology, thanks to our Prime Minister’s Swachh Bharat Abhiyan.

As part of Mr. Modi’s ambitious project, Tamil Nadu’s Rameswaram-Manamadurai trail has become Indian railway’s first green corridor. As per the report by Times of India, ten passenger trains consisting of 286 coaches were generously provided with bio-toilets that prohibit the exit of human waste onto train tracks. The waste is collected in tanks installed below the bio-toilets and is decomposed by a consortium of bacteria.
Inaugurated by Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu on Sunday, these coaches have been gifted with about 7,000 bio-toilets. Although as stated by the Minister himself, about 25,105 toilets had already been installed onto the Tamil Nadu trains in March 2016. “During 2016-17, our target is to provide 30,000 new bio-toilets and the benefits are obvious,” he said adding the initiative will also bring down maintenance cost significantly. Before end of March next year, the line to (from Jammu) Katra will also be human waste free,” he said speaking to NDTV.
As per reco rds, India is the biggest offender of open defecation, accounting for 59 per cent of the world’s open-air poopers. Statistics also state that this leads to about 65,000 tons of human waste on the planet, every single day. To reduce this by a large extent, our government plans on installing these new toilets across all trains in the country by September 2019. Hopefully, with this eco-friendly step, our bladders would no longer have to wait longer than we usually end up doing whilst a tedious journey across the country.

Feature image courtesy of Danish Siddiqui for Reuters