Biotoilets in Railways smells of corruption
Below is a quick summary of newspaper article today that says biotoilets are broken and there is corruption.
2 years ago our circle reported the same that biotoilets were the biggest failure but the railways failed to act. Now we know why. Read below friends
Last month, when a passenger travelling in the New Delhi-Bilaspur Rajdhani express flushed the bio-toilet after use, the faulty WC threw up the waste. The passenger, soiled with stinking human waste, was angry and shot off a written complaint that was received by the Northern Railway (NR) on April 15 this year.
What he couldn’t have known was that he was flagging an issue that could potentially derail the Indian Railways’ efforts to eliminate free discharge from toilets on the tracks.
“Several similar cases of bio-vacuum toilets of M/s Amit Engineers have been reported in the past but any system improvement is yet to be done by the firm. Hence, being an exceptionally bad case, a penalty of ₹10 lakh has been imposed on the firm for damaging the image of Railways.”
The letter also noted that “a drive has been launched to check all the toilets of all the firms to positively prevent any such recurrence in future. As instructed by Railway Board, a similar drive should be launched by other zonal railways also to check the working of bio-toilet. The drive may be completed within 10 days and feedback given.”
But that wasn’t M/s Amit Engineers first negative mention in a departmental communication.
Sixteen months ago, on January 6, 2021, the vigilance branch of Railway Board, the apex decision-making body of Railways, suggested there could be a scam in the supply of vacuum toilets, and proposed that M/s Amit Engineering and another company be banned. The Railway Board’s vigilance cell conducted an enquiry and found collusion between officials of the Board, Integrated Coach Factory and two firms, including Amit Engineering.
An internal note of Integrated Coach Factory (ICF) said: “Railway Board Vigilance’s investigation into a complaint regarding issuance of vendor directory by ICF has substantiated the allegations that for supply of Vaccum Evacuation System in Indian Railways, Vendor Directory was drawn flouting all rules and regulations with the active collusion of two firms, viz., M/s Amit Engineers and M/s Oasis Fabrications with the official of Railway Board and ICF.... more
2 years ago our circle reported the same that biotoilets were the biggest failure but the railways failed to act. Now we know why. Read below friends
Last month, when a passenger travelling in the New Delhi-Bilaspur Rajdhani express flushed the bio-toilet after use, the faulty WC threw up the waste. The passenger, soiled with stinking human waste, was angry and shot off a written complaint that was received by the Northern Railway (NR) on April 15 this year.
What he couldn’t have known was that he was flagging an issue that could potentially derail the Indian Railways’ efforts to eliminate free discharge from toilets on the tracks.
“Several similar cases of bio-vacuum toilets of M/s Amit Engineers have been reported in the past but any system improvement is yet to be done by the firm. Hence, being an exceptionally bad case, a penalty of ₹10 lakh has been imposed on the firm for damaging the image of Railways.”
The letter also noted that “a drive has been launched to check all the toilets of all the firms to positively prevent any such recurrence in future. As instructed by Railway Board, a similar drive should be launched by other zonal railways also to check the working of bio-toilet. The drive may be completed within 10 days and feedback given.”
But that wasn’t M/s Amit Engineers first negative mention in a departmental communication.
Sixteen months ago, on January 6, 2021, the vigilance branch of Railway Board, the apex decision-making body of Railways, suggested there could be a scam in the supply of vacuum toilets, and proposed that M/s Amit Engineering and another company be banned. The Railway Board’s vigilance cell conducted an enquiry and found collusion between officials of the Board, Integrated Coach Factory and two firms, including Amit Engineering.
An internal note of Integrated Coach Factory (ICF) said: “Railway Board Vigilance’s investigation into a complaint regarding issuance of vendor directory by ICF has substantiated the allegations that for supply of Vaccum Evacuation System in Indian Railways, Vendor Directory was drawn flouting all rules and regulations with the active collusion of two firms, viz., M/s Amit Engineers and M/s Oasis Fabrications with the official of Railway Board and ICF.... more
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There is an approach / opportunity for no of toilets provided for no of passengers on board.Now it is 4 for one coach. ( 72 seats) ie 1:18. If we can bring it for 1: 12 maintenance also become easy. 6 toilets x 12 =72. These three can be 2 wc & 2 urinal stand in one 2+1 Solves many problems in occupancy and in maintenance and cleaning. more
Nov 10
Poor design. Biotoilets block ventilation. Earlier ones, free discharge on tracks, open commode chute, naturally aspirated. Combine both, for ideal results. Non-functional bio-toilets worse! CAG reported around 2,00,000 non-functional biotoilets in the year 2017. more
Sep 05
