Broad gauge railway section connecting Rameswaram in Ramanathapuram district and Manamadurai in Sivaganga district will become the first green corridor of Indian Railway with no discharge of night soil on the 114-km-long railway track.
Southern Railway has ensured that the coaches of all mail/express and passenger trains running in the section have only bio-toilets. These toilets have bio-digester that would convert human waste into gas and liquid.
Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu will formally declare the “green corridor” in Madurai Railway Division on Monday.
A total of 16 rakes, including four rakes of passenger trains (running between Rameswaram and Madurai and Rameswaram and Tiruchi) have now got over 250 coaches with bio-toilets. The new initiative will make the entire section eco-friendly.
“The platforms in the railway stations and the entire track will be void of foul smell,” Senior Divisional Mechanical Engineer Jay Prakash said.
“Only the liquid, that too treated with bacteria, would be discharged from the coaches at the railway pitlines while taking up maintenance work,” he said.
Night soil was the major cause of corrosion of railway tracks. Besides, the human waste also corroded the under-gear of the railway coaches.
Hereafter, maintenance of the tracks would become easier. Similarly, in the process, involvement of manpower in cleaning human waste would be completely eliminated in this section, officials said.
A special team of maintenance staff, led by a supervisor, has been deployed at Rameswaram to ensure that all the bio-toilets remain functional without any snag before the trains leave the station.
Southern Railway has already set up a bio-lab at the station to test the waste discharged from the bio-toilets.
Indian Railway has planned to replace all the conventional toilets in the trains with bio-toilets across the country.
