Japan to bring waterless, odorless toilets into the Indian Railways

Indian Railways could soon come at par with world standards with waterless, odorless toilets in trains and at stations because the government is tying up with Japan under a $140-billion outlay to improve the railways. Japan will provide its expertise and technology in innumerable problems that plague our railway network.
This has been reported in timesofindia.indiatimes.com dated 10 September 2015.

Railway minister Suresh Prabhu is right now in Japan to strengthen cooperation in rail sector. He has held a number of high-level meetings with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, deputy Prime Minister and finance minister Taro Aso. One object would be to achieve zero-accident situation apart from cooperation on modernization and upgradation.
Suresh Prabhu is on a two-nation tour to Japan and Korea since September 7.
These are all wonderful ideas but wonder whether the ideas proposed by Japan would cover illegal encroachments on railway properties on the railway platforms or on land belonging to the railways. Also, there would have to be eviction of vendors and beggars from the stations. And, of course, the problem of people and animals walking on the tracks would also have to be stopped.
(Image courtesy wikimediacommons.org)

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Indian Railways – Budget 2015 is a budget of hollow promises

#RailBudget2015 #PrabhukiRail #biotoilet #IndianRailways The Railway Budget presented by Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu in the Parliament has made plenty of claims that may not be feasible given the mindset of Indians. In this connection reference can be made to ndtv.com dated 26 February 2015.
The fact that there is no change in passenger fares and no hikes is passe. But, why the reservation booking period of 4 months – can anybody predict what would happen in 4 months’ time. And – when he is unable to perform the journey, he would have to cancel it and pay cancellation charges. That is unfair. The reservation booking period should be much less – 10 days, as it used to be in the 1960s and 70s.
When it comes to cleanliness, we all know that it is of prime importance but, Indians are a typical set of people who have a different concept of cleanliness that may not match with the ideas of the Minister. It is good to know that integrated cleaning will be taken up through private agencies – what is left unsaid is that the contracts would probably go to people who have contacts that matter.
The Minister has indicated that 600 new bio-toilets would be brought in – probably these would be fitted in the Rajdhani Express and Shatbdi Express trains. But, the idea of replacing 17,000 old toilets with bio-toilets is vague. The toilets are an integral part of each coach. Each coach has four toilets and, to replace them, the coaches would have to go to the sheds for major repair work.
With 4 toilets in each coach and with each long distance train usually having around 30 coaches – that would mean 120 toilets in every train. Therefore, 17000 toilets would mean roughly 140 trains. Would the replacement of 17000 toilets become a 10-year project?
Before going in for such dream projects, the railways can come down to ground realities and take some action to check and repair or replace latches of existing toilets – many of them are unserviceable, broken or even missing.
Another area that needs to be clarified is that of audio-based warnings at unmanned railway crossings – the number of unmanned level crossings in the country is over 3000 as admitted and majority of these are in remote locations where electricity has yet to reach – therefore, the Minister should explain just how the audio-based warnings would work. Would these be solar operated systems or manual with fog horn like equipment?

Reducing greenhouse gas emission - Indian Railways introduces CNG run train

#CNGtrain #greenhousegasemission #IndianRailways With the intention to boost non-conventional sources of energy the Indian Railways has taken a major step to introduce CNG trains – the first such train would be in the Rewri-Rohtak sector of north zone.
The train was flagged off by Railway minister Suresh Prabhu and this would run on dual fuel system — diesel and CNG — and the objective is to reduce greenhouse gas emission. Moreover, it would also cut the fuel bill of the transporter by reducing consumption of diesel.
As per reports, the railways have modified the 1,400 HP engine to run on dual fuel namely diesel and CNG by using fumigation technology. The passenger train would consume over 20% of CNG and cover a distance of 81-Km in about two hours.
An official of the Railways has indicated that the use of CNG in trains would gradually be increased to around 50%. Test trials are being conducted for increased usage of CNG. Future plans are for running more such CNG trains to reduce diesel consumption.
Brief details of the Rewri-Rohtak train are – it would consist of two power cars and six car coaches that have been manufactured by the Integral Coach Factory, Chennai and the CNG conversion kit is being supplied by Cummins.