In the first four months of the current year, Indian Railways has fitted more bio-toilets on coaches than done in past three years. Between April and July this year, 2,285 bio-toilets were fitted in passenger coaches in comparison to 1,337 bio-toilets fitted in 2012-13, 169 in 2011-12 and 57 in the year 2010-11.
“At present Railways is running 1,400 coaches with about 3,800 bio-toilets in various trains. The first train, Gwalior-Varanasi Bundelkhand Express, fitted with bio-toilets is running since January 2011,” a railway official said. Railways claimed to have received encouraging feedback about the facility from the users and railway maintenance staff.
“In its endeavour to take all necessary steps to keep station premises clean, Indian Railways is now manufacturing all new conventional passenger coaches fitted with bio-toilets,” official said.
These bio-toilets are fitted below the coach floor underneath the lavatories and the human waste discharged into them is acted upon by a colony of anaerobic bacteria that convert human waste mainly into water and small amount of gases (methane and CO2).
The gases escape into atmosphere and waste is discharged after chlorination onto the track. Human waste thus does not fall on the railway track. This is environmentally-friendly and also improves the working condition for the railway track staff.
This technology has been developed jointly by Indian Railways and Defence Research & Development Organisation (DRDO) for railway passenger coaches and is the first of its kind in Railway Systems in the world.
One particular type of bacteria which is used in this design of bio-toilet has been carefully collected and analysed by DRDO from Antarctica and the efficiency of this system has been tested by DRDO in extreme climates and conditions like those at Siachen Glacier. The anaerobic bacteria in the bio-designer not only survives extreme cold and heat but also when subjected to commonly available disinfectants.