Railways aiming to install bio-toilets in all trains by March 2019

The Indian Railways is planning to introduce bio-toilets in all coaches by March next year, according to Ravindra Gupta, member of rolling stock, Railway Board, New Delhi.

He was speaking at 17th carriage maintenance group meet of railways, reported Times of India.

As of May 31, 1,36,965 bio-toilets have been fitted in 37,411 coaches, at a cost of around Rs 1 lakh per toilet, PTI had claimed quoting officials

"There is a plan to install bio-toilets in around 18,750 more coaches by March 2019, when all the coaches of the Indian Railways will be fitted with such toilets, costing the national transporter around Rs 250 crore," the wire agency had reported some time back.

Anaerobic digestion process is applied for the processing human excreta in the bio-toilets that are being fitted in passenger coaches of trains. No human excreta is thrown on tracks from a bio-toilet.

In these bio-toilets, fitted underneath the lavatories, human waste is collected and processed by anaerobic bacteria that converts it mainly into water and bio-gases (mainly Methane and Carbon Dioxide).