The Chinese railway system is maintained by the management and is duly supported by the political class. In India though efforts have been made, it would be a herculean task to sort out issues concerning development and deploynment, writes RC ACHARYA
A visit to the Nanjing railway station, China, is an experience in itself. An architectural delight of stainless steel columns, aluminium struts, fiber glass seats, and sheet glass frontage are visible. The station could be easily mistaken for an airport terminal rather than a railway facility. Moreover, the premises, including the platforms, are spotlessly clean and so are the tracks and the trains. So how do they do thisIJ Is there some draconian law to ensure it or it is simply a case of smoke and mirrors at Nanjing onlyIJ Far from it, far apart from the inherent discipline observed by the common citizens, the rigid system enforced helps to keep the railways environment clean.
First, the scheme of things in Chinese railways are such that a person visits a railway station primarily to board a train to reach his destination, and not to see-off or receive friends and relatives etc. It’s a practice introduced by the European pioneers who years ago, built most of the dozen or so railway systems in China and maintained by the present day management duly supported by the political class. Thus, access to the station premise — not just to the platform — is restricted to ticket-holders only. In the absence of platform tickets, the mass of well-wishers, friends and relatives who visit the station premises — as is a common sight in India — is simply not there. The platform never gets converted into a vast camping area.
Second, vendors and all kinds of food stalls are available at a central food court that is a part of the station premise, which also houses waiting rooms, left luggage lockers, rest rooms and other conveniences. Since there are no vendors on the platform, they are garbage-free, and so is the track which often becomes a dumping ground for the passengers here in India. last but not the least, travel discipline at the railway stations involves asking passengers to mark time in waiting rooms: Four of them at all major stations, each one designated to hold one of the four classes of passengers common in China, Rs hard seating, hard sleeper, soft seating and soft sleepers, somewhat akin to our own second general, second sleeper, two or three tier AC and first AC.
The passengers are permitted to enter the platform only when the train they intend to board arrives. Hence, they have no time or opportunity to litter the platform or the track. Chinese trains also sometimes run late during heavy winter fog, yet the passengers patiently bide their time in the waiting rooms. Such a radical departure in travel habits, and enforcement of restricted access to platforms, will indeed be a herculean task, though some efforts have been made to manage the crowd, such as during a mass exodus from stations in Delhi on trains for the Chhath festival.
Food courts will need to be set up before removing the vendors from the platform area, a move which could prove to be highly unpopular and which undoubtedly will result in political intervention. Moreover large number of waiting rooms will need to be built to handle the huge passenger volume particularly at major stations. In addition, bio-toilets are fitted on almost all coaches in China — a common feature of almost all European and British Rail trains which ensures that the fecal matter from the toilets is not dumped on the tracks. In this connection, Indian Railways have already made a beginning with an ambitious project, estimated to cost Rs4,500 crore, to fit bio-toilets on all coaches.
A design developed jointly by the Research Design and Standards Organisation and the Defence Research and Development Organisation integrates a bio-digester tank with the existing coach toilet. An anaerobic bio-degradation process ensures that there is no bad odour, effluent is free of solid waste, organic matter and pathogens is reduced by almost 90 per cent. It is also maintenance-free. Human waste discharged into the under-slung bio-digester tank is acted upon by special bacteria which converts it into harmless liquid and gas (methane and carbon dioxide). Waste water is discharged after chlorination while the gases escape to atmosphere, thereby keeping the environment clean.
So far, about 5,600 coaches mostly conventional stock, Rs integral design, have been retro-fitted with bio-toilets while over 10,000 are planned. With 1,500 each manufactured by the Integral Coach Factory, and the Rail Coach Factory, as well as 500 made by Bharat Earth Movers ltd, 3,500 new coaches fitted with bio-toilets now regularly come to service every year . Indigenous manufacture saves precious foreign exchange, with each toilet costing one lakh rupees could be quite a packet for the whole project. In addition, a joint working group of DRDO scientists and railway engineers meet regularly to sort out any issues concerning development and deployment. The present target for completing bio-toilets on all coaches is 2021-22, which may be speeded up to end by 2019, in line with the Prime Minister’s dream to make Bharat completely swachch by that time.
(The writer is a former Member, Railway Board)