Stinking washrooms on trains may become a thing of the past with the railways launching the trial run of vacuum toilet on Dibrugarh Rajdhani from Monday.
Vacuum toilet, a first in railways, will be on trial in Dibrugarh Rajdhani from September 14, said a senior Railway Ministry official involved with the project.
Fitted in the First AC coach at an estimated cost of about Rs. 3 lakh, the vacuum toilet is also equipped with the bio-digester system.
Vacuum toilets are currently operational in aircraft.
According to the plan, railways will initially install 80 such toilets on a Shatabdi Express train, the official said.
Indian Railway has floated global tenders for installing the toilets at a cost of Rs. 25 crore and multinational companies from Germany, USA, Denmark and Spain have evinced interest in manufacturing and installing the system, the official said.
The environment-friendly vacuum-based toilets consume much less water than conventional ones despite improved efficiency of the flush, aiding water conservation efforts. Besides, such toilets would also help prevent corrosion of rail tracks.
A vacuum toilet will also be installed at New Delhi station.
