The Mysuru division of South Western Railway will complete retrofitting the existing coaches with bio-toilets within two years.
This is part of the ongoing drive to switch to bio-toilets in lieu of the conventional toilets that discharges waste on tracks.
“So far about 70 coaches have been fitted with bio-toilets and the entire exercise will be completed in two years,” said Rajkumar Lal, Divisional Railway Manager, Mysuru Division.
He told presspersons here on Friday that at first the focus will be on important trains with heavy passengers patronage and long-distance trains.
Even local passenger trains will be fitted with bio-toilets but the process will go beyond two years, he added.
The Railways have decided to phase out conventional toilets to adapt more environment-friendly practices and the design of the bio-toilets has been approved by the Research Design and Standards Organisation (RDSO), Lucknow. The Mysuru Division operates nearly 110 pairs of trains and is responsible for the primary maintenance of about 570 passenger coaches of which 50 per cent belong to express trains.
Hence, the exercise is expected to be completed in two years for important trains and it will cost Railways around Rs. 6.74 lakh per coach to switch over to the bio-toilets
The retro-fitting is being done at the Central Workshop at Ashokapuram and calls for strengthening the under-frame of the coach as installation of four such toilets adds to the weight of the coach and hence should not compromise on balance at high speed and safety.
Mr. Rajkumar said the safety audit for Mysuru Division was undertaken recently and the standards maintained by the supervisory officers were exemplary.
Signal failures were among the lowest in the country and there were hardly two or three such incidents against a national average of nearly 20 such reports, he said. Senior Divisional Commercial Manager Anil Kumar was present.
Railways will run a few Dasara special services mainly on the Mysuru-Bengaluru section to coincide with key events like Jamboo Savari on October 23. The number of services and dates are to be announced later.
In addition to five smart-card operated Automatic Ticket Vending Machines to dispense tickets, two versatile machines which are currency-operated will also be installed at Mysuru station during this month. Security will be beefed up for the festival and additional RPF personnel will be roped in for crowd management.
An executive lounge at Mysuru station will be in place in due course courtesy IRCTC. It will cater to passengers travelling in AC class and will be an added amenity to the station which receives hundreds of tourists daily.
Besides, a fast food plaza will be ready at Arsikere junction for the benefit of passengers.
Station masters of Banasandra, Ammasandra, Gubbi are among those who have been rewarded with Rs.10,000 cash incentive.
