Rlys target 80,000 bio-toilets in 2018, vacuum bio-toilets

The railways would not only install 80,000 bio-toilets in trains in 2018, but would go one step further and install vacuum bio-toilets, like those in aeroplanes -- odour-free and choke-free, it said today.

A day after a Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) report revealed that there were over two lakh complaints about choking, foul-smelling and non-functional bio-toilets in trains from the passengers in 2016-2017 alone, the national transporter said its target was to achieve a complete shift to bio-toilets in all the train coaches by December, 2018.

Ravindra Gupta, a member of the Railway Board, refused to comment on the CAG report, but said the ministry was planning to roll out the first 100 coaches with bio-vacuum toilets.
 

"These bio-toilets will be odour-free, will cut down the water usage by 1/20th and have much lesser chances of getting blocked. We will first install these toilets in 100 trains, then gradually scale it up," he said.

The vacuum bio-toilets will cost the railways Rs 2.5 lakh per unit, while the present bio-toilets cost Rs 1 lakh each.

The Chennai-based Integral Coach Factory (ICF) will roll out 100 coaches fitted with bio-vacuum toilets, starting January 2018.

Initially, these toilets will be in the AC-I and AC-II coaches of select trains.

Gupta also said 22 green corridors were planned for 2017 -2018, while six such corridors were commissioned in 2016- 2017.