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Showing posts with label Vacuum-based toilets. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Vacuum-based toilets. Show all posts

Tuesday, 15 September 2015

07:19

Stinking washrooms on trains set to go, railways to introduce vaccum toilets


Stinking washrooms on trains set to go, railways to introduce vaccum toilets

New Delhi: Stinking washrooms on trains may become a thing of the past with the railways launching the trial run of vacuum toilet on Dibrugarh Rajdhani from Monday.

Vacuum toilet, a first in railways, will be on trial in Dibrugarh Rajdhani from September 14, said a senior Railway Ministry official involved with the project.

Fitted in the First AC coach at an estimated cost of about Rs 3 lakh, the vucuum toilet is also equipped with the bio-digester system.

Vacuum toilets are currently operational in aircraft.

According to the plan, railways will initially install 80 such toilets on a Shatabdi Express train, the official said.

Indian Railway has floated global tenders for installing the toilets at a cost of Rs 25 crore and multinational companies from Germany, USA, Denmark and Spain have evinced interest in manufacturing and installing the system, the official said.

The environment-friendly vacuum-based toilets consume much less water than conventional ones despite improved efficiency of the flush, aiding water conservation efforts. Besides, such toilets would also help prevent corrosion of rail tracks.

A vacuum toilet will also be installed at New Delhi station.

Currently, premier trains like Rajdhani and Shatabdi are equipped with controlled discharge toilet system which prevent disposal of waste at stations. “Waste is automatically discharged after trains gather a minimum speed of 30 km per hour,” the official said.

So far, railways have replaced 17,388 conventional toilets with bio-toilets. About 17,000 more are to be replaced by the end of this year.
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Monday, 16 March 2015

07:30

Major Railway Accidents during the last five years - Causes and measures

In a recent Action Taken Report, government had called for zero-discharge toilets on all passenger trains

Dirty railway tracks and piles of garbage alongside the tracks have not only presented an ugly side to the travelling public but also posed serious safety problem to the Indian Railways. But it turns out that the excreta falling directly on the rails from the coaches is a major cause of corrosion of rail foot, leading to rail fractures and derailments.
While admitting that the number of derailments have increased on account of rail or weld fractures, the Railways have pointed out that the major cause of rail fractures is corrosion of rail foot due to dropping of excreta from the coaches directly on the rails.

In the Action Taken Report (ATR) on the recommendations of the 21st report of the Standing Committee on Railways on "Major Railway Accidents during the last five years — Causes and Remedial Measures" which was tabled recently in Parliament, the government said that all passenger train coaches need to be fixed with zero-discharge toilets to get rid of the problem of corrosion of rails.

Other measures, listed by the government, to protect the rails from corrosion include developing corrosion-resistant Nickel-Chromium-Copper rails and Copper-Molybdenum rails which are still under trial in different zonal railways; anti-corrosive bituminous painting of rails, greasing and sealing of liner contact area on corrosion prone areas. The Railways have also commissioned a study on rail corrosion due to micro-organisms and remedial measures to the Centre of Elecro-Chemical Research Institute (CECRI).

The ATR said complete mechanisation of track maintenance and construction had been planned. It said that increase in speed, axle loads and volume of traffic required greater maintenance efforts and superior quality of maintenance.

The report noted the Standing Committee's concern that poor maintenance of track was the major cause of derailment. It wanted the Railway Ministry to take proactive steps, including introducing technological innovations to improve tracks and regular inspection to ensure rail-worthiness of tracks. In 2013-14, the total number of consequential accidents due to track defects were 19 and out of these eight were due to poor maintenance of tracks.

While presenting this year's Rail Budget in the Lok Sabha last month, Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu had kept the focus on cleanliness of trains and stations and augmenting existing facilities for the passengers. The budget proposed to replace existing toilets with 17,388 bio toilets and bring out design for vacuum toilets in six months.

Source : The Hindu
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Sunday, 1 February 2015

11:18

Safety tanks and sewerage link for the disposal of waste at stations- Indian Railways

Safety tanks and sewerage link for the disposal of waste at stations -Indian Railways

NEW DELHI: Water conservation initiatives such as introduction of environment-friendly vacuum toilets and changes in the design of existing lavatories in trains are some of the proposals likely to be announced in the forthcoming Rail Budget.

According to a senior railway ministry official, a concrete plan of action for water management at stations and trains will be reflected in the Rail Budget 2015-16 to be announced by railway minister Suresh Prabhu, who is keen on promoting environment-friendly activities in the transporter.

Railway ministry will also announce the grand plan of water audit across the rail system in the country.

The official said that since vacuum toilet consumes one-fourth less water than the existing lavatories, Railways is keen to try it in some selected trains.

There is a plan to install 80 vacuum toilets in Delhi-Chandigarh Shatabdi Express on a trial basis and a budgetary provision is likely to be made for it in Prabhu's maiden rail budget, he said.

Environment-friendly and vacuum-based toilets prevent corrosion of rail tracks as they stop waste discharge on the tracks, he added.

Railways will tie up with civic authorities to make the vacuum toilet system operational, as it entails construction of safety tanks and sewerage link for the disposal of waste at stations.

The official, however, clarified that installation of bio-toilets in trains will continue with some minor design change in it. "Replacement of conventional toilet with bio-toilet will continue as it is the stated policy of Railways to have environment-friendly hygienic toilet system in the entire rail system," he said.

"Certain modifications in the bio-toilet design is required to make it function more smoothly," he added.

Malfunctioning of bio-toilets were reported in some cases during the trial run. "Steps are being taken to tackle it with some changes in the design."

Apart from trains, Railways is planning to install bio-toilets at stations also.

The change in the design in existing toilets is also to make them more user-friendly and hygienic as improving passenger amenities will be focus area in the budget proposal.
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