The 114-km-long Manamadurai– Rameswaram stretch of Southern Railway became India’s first ‘Green corridor’ after Railway Minister Suresh Prabhakar Prabhu dedicated the section through videoconferencing from Chennai Central Station.

After the Minister dedicated the section as part of Indian Railway’s commitment to clean environment, Divisional Railway Manager (Madurai) Sunil Kumar Garg unveiled a plaque, marking the dedication, at a simple function here.

Tamil Nadu Minister for Information Technology M. Manikandan and Senior Mechanical Divisional Engineer Jay Prakash were also present.

key points

• About 150 coaches in 13 pairs of express and passenger trains, running in the section, would have bio-toilets and there would be zero discharge of human waste on tracks in the section.

• Rameswaram railway station, which handled the trains, had already been developed as a ‘Green Station’ to handle the bio-toilets in the coaches.

• Indian Railway had developed the environment friendly ‘IR-DRDO Bio-toilets’, in association with Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO).

• The Green Rail Corridor ensures zero toilet discharge on rail tracks as part of its commitment to clean environment under the ‘Swachh Rail-Swachh Bharat’ initiative.

• Mr. prabhu  said till March 2016, a total of 35,104 bio-toilets had been provided and since then till last week 7,000 more new bio-toilets have been made operational.
  “During 2016-17, our target is to provide 30,000 new bio-toilets and the benefits are obvious,” he said adding the initiative will also bring down maintenance cost significantly.

• “Before end of March next year, the line to (from Jammu) Katra will also be human waste free,” he said.