Indian Railways to install dustbins in coaches with bio-toilets to prevent choking

To prevent the choking of newly installed bio-toilets in trains, the Indian Railways is planning to place dustbins in all their lavatories by December 2018, sources said.

The decision was taken after plastic bags, sanitary napkins, bottles were found stuck in toilets resulting in not only their choking but also stinks in the coaches.

The railway board has now directed all zonal railways to install dustbins in their bio-toilets by December this year, the source said.

According to the source, such dustbins are already in the process of being installed in the bio-toilets of 40,283 coaches, while the installations have been completed in 30,000 coaches.

Anaerobic digestion is applied for 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 an evaluation of 25,000 toilets for the period under review (2016-17), the Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG) detected 199,689 defects and deficiencies, slamming the railways for the "quality and quantity" of material being procured.