The Indian Railways has developed a prototype of hybrid vacuum toilets which uses only 500 ml of water for flushing. The design was developed by the development cell of the Railway Board that combines the advantages of vacuum toilets and those of bio-toilets to create a new design of hybrid vacuum toilet.
The prototype consists of a custom designed Vacuum toilet adapted from a commercially available vacuum toilet that is used in aircrafts which evacuates its discharge into a biodigester tank which is now successfully proven in the biotoilets of Indian Railways. The biodigester tank is fitted underneath the coach and contains anaerobic bacteria that converts human fecal matter into water and small amount of gases before discharging the same on the ground/track.
A conventional toilet or Biotoilet uses 10 – 15 liters of water per flush whereas the vacuum toilet consumes only appx. 500 ml of water for flushing. This newly developed toilet has been fitted in one coach No. 153002/C FAC that is running in Dibrugarh Rajdhani for trail.
Indian Railways – Additional Facts
- Indian Railway is constructing the highest rail bridge over Chenab, in J&K
- The Indian Railways website gets close to 12 Lakh hits per minute.
- The first train in India ran on 16th April 1853 from Bombay to Thane.
- The mascot of Indian Railways is Bholu – the guard elephant.
- The first railroad was constructed by two Indians – Jaganath Shunkerseth and Jamsetjee Jeejeebhoy.
Test Your Knowledge
According to a research published by the World Economic Forum, _____________ is the world’s biggest employer.
World Toilet Day is observed on
