The nation’s first Green Rail Corridor, a 114-km long Rameswaram-Manamadurai extent in Tamil Nadu was inaugurated by Railways Minister Suresh Prabhu.
What is a Green Rail Corridor?
- In order to improve cleanliness and hygiene, Trains in the green corridor have been fitted with bio-toilets, which ensure zero discharge of human waste on the rail tracks.
- All trains on this route will have bio-toilets to ensure zero discharge of human waste on the track. These include 14 stations with 10 passenger trains, consisting of 286 coaches.
- In coaches with bio toilets, human waste is collected in tanks below the toilets and is decomposed by a consortium of bacteria and then the water is discharged on the tracks.
- Indian railways signed a MoU with DRDO (Defence Research & Development Organization) for the development of this technology.
- This green corridor is aimed towards the ‘Swachh Bharat Abhiyan’ initiated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the Indian Railways have set the target of providing bio-toilets in all the coaches by September, 2019 in order to prevent open defaecetation on the railway tracks.
Inauguration Ceremony:-
Union Railway minister inaugurated the corridor through video conferencing between Chennai and Rameswaram station and also he addresses the importance of the bio – toilets in this ceremony. Till July around 42,000 bio – toilets have been installed in several trains running throughout India.
As a part of Digital India Plan, he also inaugurated high speed upgraded Wi-Fi facility, set up in association with Google, at Chennai Central Railway Station and a similar facility at Tiruchirappalli through video conferencing.
On his visit to Chennai, Suresh Prabhu also launched a traditional medicine centre under Ayush at Perambur Railway Hospital and a broad gauge line between Thiruvallur and Thiruvalangadu stations on the Chennai-Arakkonam line.
The railway minister also added that following this green corridor, the following routes will also be fitted with bio – toilets,
- Okha-Kanalas (141 km),
- Porbandar-Wansjaliya (34 km)
- Jammu-Katra (78 km) sections