RailEnquiry

New Delhi: Drinking Water and Sanitation Minister Jairam Ramesh on Thursday termed Indian Railways as world's biggest open toilet.

"We are the world's capital for open defecation. It is a matter of shame, anguish, sorrow, anger," Ramesh said speaking at a function where an MoU on eco-friendly toilets was exchanged.

According to media reports, Ramesh said: "The second dimension of the sanitation problems in India is the Railway, which is really the largest open toilet in the world. 11 million passengers every day and we all know the state of sanitation in our railway."

Noting that over 60 percent of all open defecation takes place in India, Ramesh pitched for greater funding for bio-toilets saying that 100,000 "bio-toilets" will be installed in about 300 backward gram panchayats in the next two years at a cost of Rs150 crore.

On Tuesday, Ramesh had offered that his Ministry would bear half the cost of retrofitting eco-friendly bio-toilets in all 50000 coaches in five years.

The total cost for retrofitting bio-toilets in all coaches would be about Rs 500 crores.

Ramesh said that at present only nine trains with 436 coaches are fitted with bio-toilets, while 4,000 coaches are produced annually which could be fitted with new bio-toilets developed by Defence Research & Development Organisation (DRDO).