Here’s a novel idea to provide stench-free rides in trains

A senior Railway official has come out with a novel idea that could rid the Indian Railways of the ‘World’s largest open toilet’ tag.

His idea of self-contained toilet coaches (SCTC) within every train rake will not only make tracks stench-free, but also reduce financial burden on the Railways, which is introducing expensive bio-toilets in all coaches.

In his paper posted on the Indian Railway Traffic Service (IRTS) Association (www.irts.org.in), senior IRTS officer and Director with the Railway Board, Anwar Hussain Shaik, has given a simple solution — remove toilets in every passenger coach and design exclusive toilet coaches that can be attached to every rake. The SCTC will have a collection tank beneath and a water tank atop. The waste will be disposed of directly to the underground drainage system at designated stations, thereby completely eliminating manual intervention. Depending upon the number of coaches of each rake, three or four toilet coaches could be marshalled in between the rake in such a way that passengers need not cross more than three coaches to reach the toilet, Mr. Shaik said.

Introduction of SCTC for all 1,600 rakes of the Railways would cost around Rs. 1,000 crore at the rate of Rs. 63 lakh per rake. However, the bio-toilets would cost more than Rs. 8,000 crore. He, however, admitted that the big problem would be changing the mindset of passengers, who are used to toilets in every coach.