Railways to add 30,000 bio toilets this year: Minister

Indian Railways on Tuesday said it plans to add 30,000 bio toilets on its trains during this year.

According to Railways Minister Suresh Prabhakar Prabhu, Indian Railways have so far provided more than 40,000 bio toilets and plans to add 30,000 during the current year.

The minister spoke at an event here in which the Indian Railways entered into a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with industry body Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) for green rating and studies on energy efficiency of its production units.

Prabhu said that the association with CII will enable the Indian Railways to weigh its green initiatives against the global standards.

CII said the intent of the MoU is to implement CII Green Company (GreenCo) rating for all Indian Railways factories and workshops.

"CII GreenCo rating system is the first-of-its-kind in the world and is a robust evaluation process which rates the degree of environmental performance of the company," the CII said in a statement.

"As part of the MoU, ICF Perambur, DLW in Varanasi and a workshop in Perambur will be considered for GreenCo rating in 2016."

The GreenCo rating system evaluates the companies on 10 broad performance parameters and also enables in development of long term green growth strategy and introduction of global best practices in operations.

"As part of the MoU, an initial set of activities on capacity building, engagement with technology suppliers and energy efficiency awards for Indian Railways units will be undertaken during 2016-17," the statement added.

"Interactions with engineering and auto companies in the private sector will also be organised in the form of meetings and missions, to facilitate learning from peers."

--IANS

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