The Indian Railways’ plans to have bio-toilets in major stations as a part of the drive for cleanliness was welcomed by Stone India, a manufacturer of such a system in the country. GP Goenka, the Chairman of Stone India, an outfit of the Duncan Goenka group, told Business Line that the fact the Railway Minister for the first time accorded priority in his speech for improving cleanliness was a welcome step.

“It is also a public hygene issue, which for the first time has been given serous attention. The fact that the Government has at last decided to act clearly indicates its intention. Clean bio-toilet without any emission is a technology-driven system. We hope that Railways choose the right technology for the new effort and gradually introduce it in the trains”, Goenka added.

According to industry sources, the Railway have roughly 400 major stations across its network and there are on an average five toilets in each such stations.

Railways uses train toilet systems that spoils the tracks even at the stations. The Railways had sought the help of the DRDO to come up with an appropriate model system for that. However, the sources said, the exercise has not yet yielded any result so far. “If all the toilets in the coaches are to be changed to bio-toilets, it would be a gigantic project and require very large investment,” said Goenka. Stone India’s technology is based on vacuum cleaning and self-dissolving of wastes.

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