Bio-toilets installed in 95 per cent coaches: Rly board chairman

The railways has completed the installation of bio-toilets in 95 per cent of its coaches and in the next three months, the entire network will be covered, Railway Board Chairman VK Yadav said on Wednesday.

Speaking to reporters at the launch of a cleanliness survey here, he said over the last five years, the national transporter had improved its services under the Swachh Bharat Abhiyan.

Following the railways adopting the "Swachh Bharat pakhwada", since September 16, over 18 lakh of its employees and their family members had participated in the "Swachh Rail, Swachh Bharat" campaign, Yadav said.

"On the occasion of the 150th birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi, we have tried our best to clean the areas near the railway premises and also taken the pledge to stop the usage of single-use plastic. We will not allow the use of plastic in the railways.

"Of the 70,000 coaches in the Indian Railways, only 2,300 are yet to have bio-toilets. About 95 per cent coaches have been fitted with bio-toilets and we have also overcome the issues of choking and other problems that we faced initially. The entire network will be fitted with such toilets over the next three months," he said.

Yadav said the railways was working on bio-vacuum toilets.

"We have developed a new technology, in collaboration with the RDSO, which will be a bio-cum-vacuum toilet.

"In the coming days, the coaches will be fitted with the new bio-vacuum toilets, which will work like a vacuum toilet," he said.

Yadav also said the railways had taken up the work of banning single-use plastic from its premises and that collection of such plastic was being done on a massive scale.