Good news for train commuters! Railways' first vacuum toilets on trial; know all about the plan

New Delhi, Sept 14: People who travel frequently through trains often complaints about dirty toilets. Stinking toilets and dirty washrooms turn their pleasant journey to a nightmare.

One can easily understand the painful experience of the commuters as they think twice before using toilets in the trains.

But all this will be a matter of the past soon as Indian Railways has taken up the issue seriously.
The Railways is contemplating to launch vacuum toilet to solve this 'toilet problem'. On Monday, the Railways will launch a trial run of vacuum toilet on Dibrugarh Rajdhani Express.

Vacuum toilet, a first in Railways

It will be on trial in Dibrugarh Rajdhani from September 14, said a senior Railway Ministry official involved with the project.

Fitted in the First AC coach at an estimated cost of about Rs 3 lakh, the vucuum toilet is also equipped with the bio-digester system.

Vacuum toilets are currently operational in aircraft.

What is the Plan?

Railways will initially install 80 such toilets on a Shatabdi Express train, the official said.

Indian Railway has floated global tenders for installing the toilets at a cost of Rs 25 crore and multinational companies from Germany, USA, Denmark and Spain have evinced interest in manufacturing and installing the system, the official said.

The environment-friendly vacuum-based toilets consume much less water than conventional ones despite improved efficiency of the flush, aiding water conservation efforts. Besides, such toilets would also help prevent corrosion of rail tracks.

A vacuum toilet will also be installed at New Delhi station.

Currently, premier trains like Rajdhani and Shatabdi are equipped with controlled discharge toilet system which prevent disposal of waste at stations. "Waste is automatically discharged after trains gather a minimum speed of 30 km per hour," the official said.

So far, railways have replaced 17,388 conventional toilets with bio-toilets. About 17,000 more are to be replaced by the end of this year.

OneIndia News

(with inputs from PTI)