System will convert human waste into disinfected liquid

The Tiruchi Railway Division has taken the green route in a big way by installing environment friendly bio-toilets in a vast majority of conventional broad gauge passenger coaches maintained by it.

Heeding the Railway Board’s directive, the divisional authorities have planned to expedite the exercise of fitting bio-toilets in the remaining coaches before the end of the year. Passenger coaches of various express trains are being maintained at the Coach Care Centres at Tiruchi and Villupuram.

Railway officials told The Hindu that 426 passenger coaches of various trains were being maintained by the Tiruchi Division at the sprawling Coach Centre Centres at Tiruchi and Villupuram, the two major stations falling under the limits of Tiruchi Division.

Of them, 301 coaches were being maintained at the Tiruchi Coach Care Centre, where primary maintenance of important trains were being carried out every day. The number of coaches maintained at the Villupuram Coach Care Centre was 125.

Primary maintenance of conventional coaches of trains, including Thanjavur-Chennai Egmore Uzhavan Express, Tiruchi-Howrah, Mannargudi-Bhagat Ki Kothi and Tiruchi-Rameswaram passenger were being done at Tiruchi. Acting in accordance with the Railway Board’s directive, the Tiruchi Division had been steadily fitting bio-toilets in coaches maintained by it.

As many as 225 broad gauge coaches were fitted with bio-toilets at the Tiruchi coaching depot and 93 others at the Villupuram coaching depot, the officials said. The divisional authorities aim to complete the exercise in the remaining 108 coaches by December, the target set by the Railway Board for completion of the process, said a senior railway officer.

The Tiruchi Coach Care Centre would fit bio-toilets in some of the coaches, while the Golden Rock Railway Workshop here where the compartments were being sent for periodic overhaul would be fitted with bio-toilets.

The Chennai Egmore-Thanjavur-Chennai Egmore Uzhavan Expresses had already become a ‘Green Train’ with the entire rake having been fitted with bio-toilets. Similarly, the Tiruchi - Rameswaram daily passenger train with 10 coaches had also become a ‘Green Train’.

The bio-toilets are provided with bio-digesters, which would prevent waste from falling on the track directly posing a huge problem for sanitary workers involved in cleaning. The waste is collected in the tank, which has chambers inside where solid and liquid separation is done. The system would convert human waste into disinfected liquid which is discharged on the track later without causing corrosion to tracks besides improving the aesthetics, said the officials.

Railway officials have appealed to passengers to desist from throwing napkins and garbage in the commode as this would cause choking and block the waste making the facility unusable.