I was recently on the Rewa Express running between New Delhi and Rewa in Madhya Pradesh when I chanced upon this conversation among few Bihar men in the compartment.

“ Arre, eeto hai, jahan aapna Lallo ne tolet ko kiya hara….”

My ears picked up. Lallo ne kiya hara? Tolet ko? What are they talking about? Tolet? What is tolet? And suddenly it struck me, they mean toilet, not tolet. But kiya hara? Meaning made it green like his green fields at home? Oh, of course, they were referring to our honourable Railway Minister, Lallo Prasad’s move to make toilet eco-friendly – Green! The Rewa Express is on the test run with a green toilet. Lallo insists on bringing his green fields from Bihar to all of the Railways 9000 trains!

Even if this move may make other Ministers green with envy. And passengers red with rage, in the long run! Dear reader, read on.

Lallo has allotted Rs 4,000 crore for “discharge–free green toilets” in all 36,000 coaches in the eleventh plan period. Therefore, by 2013, all trains will have eco-friendly green toilets.

What does that mean? It means that in all the trains with eco-friendly, green toilets, the excreta are collected in a tank, which is divided into two chambers. The first chamber contains a patented bacterial culture that breaks down waste in six-seven days by enzyme action. The resulting liquid is led into the second section where it is treated with chlorine before disposal.

OMG  Disposal?  Where?  Right now, as many who travel by train will confirm that human waste is splattered on the railway tracks  and the Indian Railways are continuing with the primitive practice of manually collecting the excreta at stations.

Lallo is in the meantime, meeting with stiff resistance from already-rans. T S Seshadri, who patented his model of a toilet in 2000, says, “In 1994, bio-toilets of Microphor were installed in the Tamil Nadu and Grand Trunk Express coaches, and were a complete failure.” Seshadri, who had then reviewed the functioning of bio-toilets, says clogging of the filter led to foul smell,  cockroaches and worms , and the toilets had to be removed within six months.

 Eeeeeeeeeks!  And yet, Lallo is insistent. Hence, Aikon Technology has been given the contract of maintaining them in Rewa Express. And while we wait and watch what will be the fate of the aam janta on Rewa or for that matter, Sewa Express, Seshadri suggests railways should focus on collecting and disposing of toilet waste, not treating it. In his model, a tank of 600-900 litres capacity for each commode will be fitted between the wheels. He claims his model will cost only Rs 60,000—excluding commode, flush and overhead tank—with an annual maintenance cost of Rs 5,000. The Janshatabdi Express uses a similar system called the controlled discharge toilet system (cdts). In this the excreta is stored in a sealed tank and emptied slowly when the train leaves the station and hits a speed of more than 30 km per hour. The cost is Rs 7.5 lakh per coach.

But, we will have to see if our Railway Minister listens to Seshadri or goes ahead with his own plans. After all waste is big money now, (See Oh Sh1t!) So why should a Ghoshala Management Guru, with a reputation of having turned around the Indian Railways, not be honoured with a title that will stay forever - Lallu’s Tolet Harya-loo?

Any objections, to such expulsions from the writer?

References:

Down To Earth, March 28, 2008

Indian Railways' experimentation with eco-friendly toilets

http://www.downtoearth.org.in/full6.asp?foldername=20080331&filename=news&sec_id=50&sid=31

Down to Earth, January 31, 2008

Flush and Forget – Zero Waste Toilets

http://www.downtoearth.org.in/full6.asp?foldername=20080131&filename=news&sec_id=50&sid=39