Railway toilet

Presently in India, the excreta from the railway toilet of a passenger train is directly released on the tracks by a Hopper pipe attached to the toilet. This spoils the railway tracks and creates unhygienic conditions on the railway platform. Also, a lot of water is wasted and huge expenditure is incurred to clean the tracks.

My invention is a dropping- catcher which holds the droppings from a stationary train. This innovation works entirely on wind energy with no use of electricity or chemicals or complicated mechanics.
I have developed this by cutting the lower portion of the Hopper pipe of the existing railway toilet in a slanting cut on both sides, in a semicircular (half round) shape, we can fix/fit two flaps on it. When the train is stationery, the flaps remain closed due to the use of dual torsion spring. When the train attains a speed of 40Km/h or more, the flaps open because of air resists on flap and retained excreta drops down in sprinkles condition. The capacity of these flaps can be controlled.
Dropping Catcher system helps keep the railway tracks clean. With spring tension, it can easily hold 3 kg Excreta at the station and release it when away from the station. The excreta falls on the track away from station area and decomposes due to the dry atmosphere in India. A gap between the pipe and the flap allows water/urine drainage to reduce weight. When the train is stationary, the flaps are closed and hence, no excreta is visible, no reverse sucking of air can take place and foul odour is minimized. This system can be retrofitted and requires very less maintenance.
The advantages are more compared to all other green options under trial. It is a simple construction & easy to install. Second, it requires a very low investment, is i.e- at least 30 times lower than any other option in terms of per toilet unit. Thirdly, very low- almost nil operating cost. Thus, a very low cost of inventory.
In India alone, 9 thousand passenger trains are running on tracks. There are 40 thousand coaches & 160 thousand toilets.
A trial was conducted in Pragati Express (a train between two commercial cities Pune and Mumbai) from January 11 to February 19, 2009.As per the report from the Chief rolling stock engineer of central railway, the trial is satisfactory. There were no complaint from passengers, station staff or maintenance staff.
I have received funds under the TREMAP programme from Science and Technology for thirty piece order from Rammaya School of Advance study, Bangalore for Bangalore railway Authority in February 2011 and we had supplied thirty pieces in March 2011 but RDSO Executive Director (carriage) did not give us the permission.
The dropping catcher system is environmental friendly as it does not require electricity or any other chemicals compared to other systems.
This innovation is a winner idea in Take Care Take Charge competition organized by Center for Environmental Education(CEE), Times of India and Garnier in 2010. The certificate was given by the Environment Minister Mr. Jairam Ramesh.
This concept was selected in Innovation2010 organized by IIT Bombay Alumni Pune chapter. It was also selected for India Innovation Initiative (i3)National Fair 2011 conducted by DST and CII. more