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In a further move to accelerate green initiatives as also to implement Prime Minister’s Swacchh Bharat Abhiyan, Minister of Railways Shri Suresh Prabhakar Prabhu in a programme held today at Railway Bhawan inaugurated and dedicated to the nation the “Okha-Kanalus and Porbandar-Wansjaliya Sections in Gujarat of Western Railways as Green Corridor Sections (Free from human waste discharge from trains). Minister of State for Railways & Minister of State for Communication (Independent Charge) Shri Manoj Sinha and Minister of State for Railways Shri Rajen Gohain were especially present to grace the occasion. Chairman Railway Board Shri A. K. Mital, Member Rolling Stock Shri Hemant Kumar, and other Board Members and Senior Officials were also present on the occasion.

Speaking on the occasion, Minister of Railways Shri Suresh Prabhakar Prabhu said that Indian Railways, being the biggest commercial organization of the country, is continuously in practice to adopt environmentally sustainable practices so that environment is not degraded. He said that since the existence of Indian Railways, it has been a problem to make the railway-lines free from human waste discharge. But now, bio-toilets will be fitted in all new and existing trains and all railway lines in due course will be made completely free from human excreta. However, he appealed to the general public to use these bio-toilets properly and not to throw solid waste in it such as water bottles, match box etc. etc. so that these bio-toilets do not become non-functional.

Speaking on the occasion, Minister of State for Railways & Minister of State for Communication (Independent Charge) Shri Manoj Sinha said that since recent past, Indian Railways is doing exceedingly well to ensure environment friendly development and today’s Green Corridor Section is an important development. He said that Indian Railways is not only fitting bio-toilets in new rail coaches but also replacing the same in the existing coaches of daily running trains. He said that this is an extraordinary performance of the Railway Officers. Speaking on the occasion, Minister of State for Railways Shri Rajen Gohain said that the target of making the Indian Railways completely human discharge free by 2021-22 is certainly a mammoth task but this target will be achieved before its deadline. He said that Indian Railways is committed to provide cleanliness and hygienic environment to the railway passengers and is on the pursuit of achieving excellence.

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In order to contribute to mission ‘Swachh Bharat Abhiyan’ launched by Hon’ble Prime Minister of India, Ministry of Railways have taken up a mammoth task of providing human discharge free bio-toilets in all its coaches and the same would be completed by 2021-22. With provision of bio-toilets in all its coaches discharge of human waste from trains onto the ground would be completely stopped which in turn would help in improving cleanliness and hygiene. Ministry of Railways have already provided around 48,000 bio-toilets in about 14,000 passenger coaches.

So far during the current financial year 14,000 bio-toilets have already been fitted in coaches and it is planned to fit an additional of 16,000 bio-toilets in coaches in the remaining part of current financial year.

Indian Railways in its commitment to provide hygienic environment to passengers and to keep station premises/tracks clean, have developed environment-friendly Bio-toilets for its passenger coaches. The technology has been developed jointly by Indian Railways (IR) and Defence Research & Development Organization (DRDO) for railway passenger coaches through an MoU. In the bio-toilet fitted coaches, human waste is collected in tanks below the toilets and the same is decomposed by a consortium of bacteria.

In order to have visible benefits in terms of cleaner environment owing to provision of bio-toilets in coaches, Rameswaram-Manamadurai (114 Kms) section of Tamil Nadu in Southern Railway was indentified to make it a Human Waste Discharge Free Train Corridor (free from human waste discharge from trains). Accordingly, 10 passenger trains consisting of 286 coaches moving over this section have been provided with bio-toilets. This section was formally inaugurated by Minister Railways from Chennai as a Green Train Corridor on 24.07.2016.

In continuation of this exercise, today (i.e. 19th October, 2016), Okha-Kanalus Junction (141 Kms) and Porbandar-Wansjaliya (34 Kms) sections of Gujarat in Western Railway are being dedicated to the nation as Green Train Corridors by Minister of Railways. For this, 29 trains consisting of nearly 700 coaches have been provided with bio toilets.

Subsequently, Jammu-Katra (78 Kms) section of Northern Railway would also be taken up for making it free from human waste discharge from trains and the target for completion is by March 2017.

These sections and stations were chosen, because the number of trains originating and terminating at these stations and sections are few, thus making it operationally easier and faster to make them human-discharge free. With proliferation of Bio-toilets in all the coaches, eventually all the sections of Indian Railways shall become Green Corridor – free from human waste discharge contributing to Mission Swachh Bharat Abhiyan.

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