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BrahMos scientist held on spying charge, 2 others raided in Uttar Pradesh

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Brahmos scientist and BSF jawan were handled by same Pakistani handler: UP ATS report

IANS|Updated: Oct 09, 2018,
In a shocking development, a young scientist working with the BrahMos Aerospace Pvt Ltd (BAPL)’s missile research centre in Nagpur was arrested on Monday on alleged charges of spying for Pakistan’s intelligence agency ISI and other countries, informed sources said.

Scientist Nishant Pradeep Agrawal has been working for the last four years in the BAPL, an Indo-Russian Joint Venture, and was nabbed in a joint operation of Uttar Pradesh Police and Maharashtra Police.
The UP-Anti Terrorist Squad (UP-ATS) has also raided two other unidentified persons in Agra and Kanpur in the north India state and seized their laptops, an official statement of the Uttar Pradesh Police said on Monday.

Following a tip-off, he was placed under surveillance for the past few days by the Military Intelligence as well as Uttar Pradesh Police and Maharashtra Police.
The BAPL officer has been booked under the Official Secrets Act (OSA), the sources said.

The UP Police statement said the UP-ATS had monitored fake Facebook accounts originating from Pakistan in the name of women to “honey-trap” key officials working in sensitive defence-related set-ups in India.

The information came to light after the Border Security Force (BSF) recently nabbed a person in Noida, Uttar Pradesh, and two fake Facebook IDs of women created in Pakistan were put under observation after they were found to be chatting with Agrawal.

Accordingly, the UP-ATS acquired a search warrant from a court and along with Maharashtra ATS, swooped on Agrawal’s residence at Ujjwal Nagar in Nagpur.

“We have found certain secret and ultra-sensitive information on his personal computer. It should not been there on his personal laptop. It violates the provisions of the OSA, and hence he has been arrested,” the statement added.

The joint ATS teams of the two states also searched his BMAL office and from another location recovered an old laptop which is being examined to see if it contains anything objectionable.
The UP-ATS has moved a local court in Nagpur seeking a transit remand to take Agrawal to Lucknow for further investigations.

They said that after the investigations, they would be able to know what kind of chats he was having with the fake women’s accounts on Facebook.

Depending on the outcome, the accused may be slapped with additional charges, the UP-ATS said.
As per preliminary information, Agrawal was reportedly passing on certain highly classified information, including “technological and other details”, to the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) of Pakistan as well as the USA.

However, official circles are not aware of what kind of access to sensitive information or the security clearance levels Agrawal enjoyed in the company.
Hailing from Roorkee in Uttarakhand, Agarwal had been recently awarded the “Young Scientist Award” for the year 2017-18.

He had got married earlier this year and had been living in a rented house in Nagpur’s Ujjwala Nagar.

Among other things, the BrahMos centre is involved in manufacturing certain critical components for the BrahMos missile, considered the world’s fastest cruise missile that can be launched from land, ships, aircraft or submarines.
The Indo-Russian joint venture’s recent development of the latest version of the BrahMos Supersonic Cruise Missile has elicited keen interest in global defence circles and several major political powers in the world.

The missile — successfully test-fired on July 16 from the Integrated Test Range at Balasore in Odisha — is an outcome of a joint venture of India’s Defence Research & Development Organisation (DRDO) and Russia’s NPO Mashinostroyenia Corp (NPOM), since 2011.

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Defence industry may see spectacular growth after 2019 General Elections, says L&T’s Jayant Patil

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May 16, 2018 12:28 PM IST | Source: Moneycontrol.com

The L&T Whole-Time Director expects capital spending, as part of the defence budget, to increase next year, resulting in higher project orders

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Jayant D Patil spearheaded L&T’s foray into the defence industry in 1986, at a time few other private companies saw any promise in the heavily regulated industry. Patil, who joined the infrastructure heavy weight straight after passing out from IIT Mumbai in 1978, developed long-term relationships with the DRDO, and the Navy, among other defence establishments.

The early start is now helping the engineering giant. In 13 years since its debut in the market, L&T has become the largest private defence company in the country, and is bigger than most of the government-owned defence enterprises.

In an exclusive interview with Moneycontrol, Patil – Member of the Board & Whole-Time Director (Defence Business) at L&T – says that defence is one of the fastest growing businesses in the company. To reflect the growing importance of the vertical, the defence business is now an ‘independent company.’ And starting from this financial year, L&T will report the defence segment as a separate entity within its core businesses.

“We have the entire infrastructure in place. We have all the initiatives put in place. We have the R&D centres,” says Patil, adding that L&T is set for a spectacular growth.
For that growth to happen though, the central government will have to increase the proportion of capital spending in the defence budget. Patil is hopeful of that happening after the 2019 General Elections.

Excerpts from an interview:

The government has talked about developing capabilities domesticallyto reduce the dependence on imports. The Make in India campaign also focuses on the defence industry. Have you started seeing the difference?

The focus is there. The government has started putting programs in a competitive basket. Earlier projects would either go to a foreign player, or to a PSU. But now, for instance look at Navy. Earlier, 92 per cent of the warships or submarine contracts by value have been placed with government owned shipyards. As of now, except of old decisions, the government plans to allow private sector to participate in all future shipbuilding programs on competitive basis.

The issue is that things are not changing at the kind of pace what one would have hoped for and the quantum of money being allocated to enable new contracts. The current Budget allocations are just good enough to meet committed liabilities.

Why is that?
One should look at the budget allocation. Till 2014-15, 40 per cent of the defence budget would go into capital spending. Today, that has dropped to 20-25 per cent. And that it because of the huge increase in revenue costs (salary and pension payments).

That is something which the government did out of sheer respect for people who fought for the country. But the fact is that it has come at a huge cost for the future preparedness of Armed Forces. So money has become a constraint and allocations need to be enhanced.

And that has led to the slow pace?
Yes.

Do you think the situation will be better after the General Elections in 2019?
Yes, I believe that the reversal will possibly happen when the new Government comes around after the 2019 General Elections.

What has the present situation meant for L&T’s defence business?
So we have a scenario today where this is a market which shows huge promise. And we keep getting orders as and when a PSU gets a big contract. The public enterprises buy from us because we have developed these products in partnership with Defence Research Organisation (DRDO). So the business continues in “business as usual” state, the growth comes in with us getting few contracts directly from MoD.

But the growth could have been truly spectacular had Make-in-India programs taken off in a big way. We have the entire infrastructure, technologies, products and capabilities already in place. We have all the initiatives proactively in place. We have the R&D centers, design centers, and innovation groups in place. Earlier we used to have one, but now we have four R&D / Basic Design Centers to serve the defence sector.

What is your manufacturing presence?
Today we operate from Powai (Mumbai), Hazira, Baroda, Pune, Coimbatore, Vishakapatnam, Katupalli, New Mumbai and Bengaluru, which is more of an R&D unit, but also has a small production facility for strategic electronics.

Which is your largest segment?
The largest segment today is the artillery and Naval segments. The smallest segment what we are operating today is the space, missiles, communication, which are individually worth about Rs 100-200 crore per year.

What is the total order book now?
I can’t give you that number. But perhaps in another few months I can. From the 2019 financial year, we will be reporting defence business as a separate entity within the L&T core business. So wait for that.

Although we have been operating defence business for three decades, we had created defence as a separate independent company (IC) as an entity, with its own board, in the FY 2018.

A few reports last year said your order book was of about Rs 12-15k crore…Holistic if we look at it, we are bigger than that.

So all the defence businesses will be brought under this IC?
All the defence offerings are under this IC, except for very strategic construction programs.

Could you give an idea of how big your defence business is?
If I look at comparisons, HAL and BEL (Hindustan Aeronautics, which has revenue of about Rs 17,000 crore & Bharat Electronics, which has a revenue of about 10,000 crore, respectively) are larger than us. But we are slightly bigger than the other PSUs. You should remember, we were never allowed to produce until licensing began in 2002 and began getting direct orders from MoD only in 2005. In 2002, we got the first license. It’s just been 16 years now.

L&T forayed into defence even before that, with partnerships with DRDO and other defence establishments. How has the early start worked for you?

Across the segments, we have built capabilities that are unmatched. Be it warships, submarines or weapon systems, today our portfolio and offerings are ahead of competition. No other company has a portfolio range and depth as that of L&T. We don’t produce weapons as yet. But we make weapon launching systems and fire controls across the range. We can offer complete solution for an anti-submarine warfare, air-defence, land attack, or anti-ship warfare role to a warship. So, there is no domain in weapon programmes which L&T doesn’t touch.

And because we have in-house capability, we have forged partnerships where we also bring in unique value. As a result, L&T has 250 MoUs and just 4 joint ventures (equity based) while we have preferred to engage in non-equity JVs / partnerships through joint development and joint production mode. ​

Would you consider hiving off the defence business as a separate entity?

No, it is and will stay as a part of core of Larsen & Toubro.

But would you eventually list the business?
I don’t see that, not at least for the next decade or two. As for now, we are better off being part of the L&T core.

Is the defence biz growing faster than the other parts in the L&T core?

Percentage growth wise, I would say it’s among the better growing ones. But the fact is that the scale today is smaller than many other construction & hydrocarbon businesses. So if I look at the entire portfolio of L&T, defence, smart world, power transmission and water are businesses growing faster than others in percentage terms.
First Published on May 16, 2018 12:22 pm

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As S Christopher completes term, DRDO to remain headless for 3 months

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By Manu Pubby, ET Bureau|Updated: May 29, 2018

Christopher was in May last year given a one-year extension. His extended term ended today.

NEW DELHI: The Defence Research And Development Organisation (DRDO) could stay headless for as many as three months with the government failing to find a replacement for incumbent Selvin Christopher who retired on Monday. Efforts till late to grant him another extension in service could have delayed the appointment of a successor, with a search committee looking at probable names to recommend to the cabinet appointments committee.
Defence Secretary Sanjay Mitra will hold additional charge of the organisation till the government approves a scientist to take over the top position, an official notification said.

The past few weeks has seen jostling for the post. DRDO has an annual budget of `17,861 crore. Outgoing chief Christopher who was already on a year’s extension of service beyond the prescribed age but had been hoping for yet another extension.

This search committee list is expected to include the three senior most scientists of DRDO, besides the first woman to have made it to the post of director-general in the organisation. Sources said that those in the fray include missile scientists G Satheesh Reddy, the scientific advisor to the defence minister and the head of the Brahmos missile project, Sudhir Mishra.

While Mishra and Reddy come from the missile scientist community that has traditionally ‘ruled’ DRDO, also in contention is Pravin K Mehta, who heads the Armament cluster of the research organisation from Pune. A surprise entrant to the selection shortlist could also be DG Jillelamudi Manjula who heads the Electronics & Communication Systems vertical at DRDO.
As reported by ET, several top level appointments are pending at the defence ministry. The crucial posting to Northern Army Commander is still to be announced

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Race for next DRDO chief heats up, incumbent eyes extension

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By Pradip R Sagar May 02, 2018 18:29 IST  – THE WEEK

DRDO chief S. Christopher (left) with Arun Jaitley, during his brief tenure as defence minister in 2017 | Facebook account of DRDO

With the tenure of S. Christopher, current chief of the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO), coming to an end later this month, the race for the top post in the country’s premier defence research organisation has begun. Christopher, who was given a one-year extension at the last moment in May 2017, though, is also eyeing another extension. But whether he will be second time lucky is unclear.

Hectic parleys have begun for the coveted post. The key players who are in the race to lead the DRDO include Sudhir Mishra, director general of BrahMos missile system division, and G. Satheesh Reddy, who is presently serving as director general (Missiles & Strategic Systems) and scientific advisor to the defence minister. Besides Mishra and Reddy, P.K. Mehta, who is currently heading the office of the director general of armament and combat engineering systems, is considered to be in the race to head DRDO, which has an annual budget of nearly Rs 20,000 crore.

According to sources in South Block, Reddy is the senior-most scientist in the organisation after Christopher. His name figured prominently last year also, but Christopher managed to get an extension at the last minute, meaning Reddy would need to wait for a year. Former defence minister Manohar Parrikar had bifurcated the post of DRDO chief and scientific advisor to the defence minister, which earlier used to be occupied by one person. Christopher is completing his tenure on May 29.

Mishra, head of BrahMos missile system division—a joint venture between India and Russia— is also among candidates vying for the top post in DRDO.

Mehta, who is heading the Pune-based cluster of armament and combat engineering systems, can be a dark horse in the race due to his proximity with top BJP leaders, sources claimed.

Christopher, who took over as the head of DRDO in May 2015, did his best to impress Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman by showcasing the work done under his leadership towards self-reliance in the recently concluded DefExpo in Chennai. A special pavilion under the ‘Make in India’ theme was inaugurated by Modi, in which all major equipment designed and developed by DRDO were showcased. Last year, Christopher had directed all the labs to remove his photographs, just two weeks before he was to retire. But only at the last minute, he was given extension for a year by the government.

DRDO has often been criticised for delayed projects, as most of its ventures, ranging from the Tejas light combat aircraft to long-range surface-to-air missile systems, have been repeatedly missing deadlines, with huge cost overruns. In the absence of self-reliance in defence, the Indian armed forces continue to be heavily dependent on imports. India continues to top the list of global importers of military hardware, with over 70 per cent of armed forces’ requirements being met by foreign firms. Prime Minister Narendra Modi in his first interaction with DRDO scientists in 2014 had sent a stern message to the defence research agency against their ‘chalta hai’ attitude.

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Lobbying on as officers eye top DRDO job

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Abhinandan Mishra
April 8, 2018, Sunday Guardian
With the tenure of the chief of Defence Research and Development Organization Christopher (DRDO) ending next month, the officers eyeing his post have started meeting bureaucrats and politicians to push their candidature.

Even Christopher, who was given a one-year extension on 29 May last year, is interested in another tenure with the premier defence organisation and is banking on Defence Expo 2018, the largest land, naval and internal homeland security systems exhibition in the Asia-Pacific region, which will be held in Chennai from 11 to 14 April.

The defence expo, which will be inaugurated by Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, will also see the presence of Prime Minister Narendra Modi on 12 April.

Sources said it is during this event that Christopher intends to showcase the “impressive work” done by DRDO under his leadership, ever since he took over as the chief of the organisation in May 2015, to give a message to the PM that he deserves another extension.

The other officers who are fighting it out to lead the DRDO, which has an annual budget of close to Rs 17,900 crore, include P.K. Mehta, who is presently Director General for armament and combat engineering system in the organization; Dr Sudhir Mishra, who is the Director General of BrahMos missile system division of the DRDO; and G. Satheesh Reddy who is presently serving as Director General (Missiles & Strategic Systems) and Scientific Adviser to the Defence Minister.

Mehta, according to sources, is being backed by a very powerful leader from a western state, while Mishra is getting the support of some members of Niti Aayog.

Reddy’s appointment, according to sources, was almost finalised last year.

Last year, Christopher, who was given an extension at the last moment, had directed all the labs to remove his photographs from the lab, just two weeks before he was to retire.

Christopher in an internal communication had stated that “Old colonial practice followed by the Services, to display prominently, photos of their Chiefs and Commanders, is followed inadvertently by some of the labs. This practice is also not required. I request all DRDO establishments to display the photos of the President and Prime Minister of India only, and not the Chairman of DRDO. This may please be implemented at the earliest and not later than 15 May 2017”. He had stated that he was among the first few officials in the MoD who never used a red beacon, much before PM’s recent directive came. Sources within the organisation said that all the four people who were in the fray, had an exceptional profile.

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Rustom-II takes to skies as mystery over transfer of its project director continues

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By Pradip R. Sagar February 26, 2018 THE WEEK
Over a month after ‘unceremonious departure’ of the project director of Rustom-II drone A.P.V.S. Prasad, DRDO on Sunday carried out test flight of the unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) in Challakere in Karnataka’s Chitradurga district.

After the test, DRDO came out with a statement that a medium-altitude long-endurance UAV was “successful”.

However, colleagues of Prasad—“scientist-G”who was made project director of the Rustom-II UAV programme of DRDO in 2015—are still curious to know the reason behind Prasad’s sudden transfer from the project, which he actually revived. Insiders claim that Prasad’s departure was linked to his objection to the lobby, which was pushing for a particular engine for the Rustom-II. Rustom was being developed with an Austrian engine, but a few people in the organisation wanted to replace it with the engine made by an Indian firm, despite the engine’s failure to meet the ‘technical parameters’ to be used in the UAV.

Sensing foul play, Scientists Association of Aeronautical Development Establishment (ADE)—DRDO’s laboratory making the UAVs—has approached Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman to look into the matter (copy of the letter is with The WEEK). Following the complaint, a discreet inquiry is being conducted by the intelligence agencies.

On January 16, 2018, DRDO’s headquarters issued an order for transfer of Prasad to an another DRDO lab on grounds of “public interest”. Incidentally, Prasad was honoured with the best scientist award in 2017.

According to the letter from the ADE association, Prasad, who was in the DRDO for over 30 years, was promoted as the programme director of coveted Rustom-II in 2015. He actually rejuvenating the project, which was lying in a pathetic condition, and within a year of taking over, he managed to carry out first test flight of Rustom-II, the letter reveals.

When contacted, DRDO spokesperson Manish Bhardwaj declined to comment on the issue saying “he was unaware of the internal developments”.

On Sunday, DRDO came out with a statement saying “DRDO successfully flew its Rustom 2 today at its Aeronautical Test Range (ATR) at Chalakere at Chitradurga. This flight assumes significance due to the fact that this is the first flight in user configuration with higher power engine.”

Unarmed drone Rustom-II is being developed to carry out surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) roles for the armed forces with an endurance of 24 hours, on the lines of Predator drone of the US forces.

According to the officials, Rustom-II is capable of carrying different combinations of payloads like synthetic aperture radar, electronic intelligence systems and situational awareness payloads.

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DRDO lab up in arms against scientist’s transfer

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The employees of the Aeronautical Development Establishment (ADE), which is regarded as one of the most distinguished labs of the Defence Research and Development Organization (DRDO), are up in arms against what they have called arbitrary transfer.

By ABHINANDAN MISHRA | New Delhi | 28 January, 2018 Sunday Guardian

The employees of the Aeronautical Development Establishment (ADE), which is regarded as one of the most distinguished labs of the Defence Research and Development Organization (DRDO), are up in arms against what they have called arbitrary transfer of a scientist who last year was named the “best lab scientist of DRDO”.

According to ADE officials, the said scientist, who has been working with the DRDO for 30 years, is being victimised for not agreeing with his seniors who wanted materials for a project to be procured from a particular company, despite the said company not matching the requirements of the project.

On 16 January 2018, on the ground of “public interest”, A.P.V.S. Prasad, “scientist-G”, who was made the project director of the coveted RUSTOM-II UAV programme of the DRDO in 2015, was moved out of the ADE to another DRDO lab in Bangalore without any notice and without taking the permission from his director.

However, official sources said that Prasad was being pressurised to give his permission to procure products for the UAV programme from a company whose product did not match the requirements of the project and when he did not relent, he was transferred.

Prasad has been credited with making sure that the much delayed India’s UAV programme got the needed push. Within two years of Prasad taking over the project, RUSTOM-II completed its maiden flight, earning him the best DRDO scientist award in 2017. An angry employees’ union of the ADE has now approached Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman to intervene in the matter. Speaking to The Sunday Guardian, S. Narayanappa, who is president of the ADE civilian employees’ union, said that discriminatory transfers like this affect the morale of the scientists.

“I have been trying to speak to Dr S. Christopher (chairman of DRDO) on this issue but he is not taking my calls or responding to our messages. It was due to this that we were forced to approach the Defence Minister directly. Prasad is a very capable scientist which is clear from the work that he has done. His transfer, without taking even his director into confidence, is shocking. We are still awaiting a response from the Defence Minister. You can just imagine the kind of damage these kinds of things do to an official’s morale. He was offered multiple employment opportunities from various private corporate entities to head their division but he rejected them all,” Narayanappa said.

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Indian Railways faces CAG heat on bio-toilets

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The report indicated that no awareness campaign was conducted by railway zones – except Southern Railway.
Shine Jacob | New Delhi Buisness Standard
Last Updated at December 19, 2017
The Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) has criticised Indian Railways for installation of bio-toilets on trains, citing that majority of them face operation deficiencies including choking, foul smell and inadequate supply of bacterial inoculum.

The report indicated that no awareness campaign was conducted by railway zones – except Southern Railway. Moreover, only 36.62 per cent supervisory and 23.21 per cent non-supervisory staff were trained in maintenance of bio-toilets.

The ‘bio-toilet’ (using bio-digester technology) is an eco-friendly waste management solution, which reduces solid human waste to bio-gas and water with the help of a bacterial inoculum through biological degradation of human waste. It eliminates the direct discharge of human waste from coach toilets onto railway tracks and platform aprons in stations, and helps avoid manual scavenging while keeping the platform aprons and trains clean.

An audit conducted in 30 coaching depots of 15 zonal railways in 2016-17 by CAG indicated that out of 613 trains being handled in these depots, 160 trains did not have any bio-toilets fitted. “In remaining 453 trains with 25,080 bio-toilets, 1,99,689 instances of deficiencies were noticed,” the report said.
It was in January 2015 that the railway board decided to eliminate the provision of direct discharge toilets in new coaches by the end of 2016-17. However, during 2014-15 to 2016-17, utilization of funds for retrofitment of bio-toilets remained between 34 per cent and 71 per cent. For the year 2016-17, Minister of Railways had announced that 20,000 bio-toilets were to be inducted through retrofitment. Railway Board fixed an internal target of 50,000 bio-toilets to be inducted through retrofitment. “As against this target, various Zonal Railways could achieve induction of 22,198 bio-toilets through retrofitment. The shortfall of more than 30 per cent was noticed in five Zonal Railways out of 16 Zonal Railways (East Central-67 per cent, North Central-49 per cent, Northern-42 per cent, South Eastern-44 per cent and Western-43 per cent),” the report added.

The report also indicated that due to the inadequate progress of retrofitment of bio-toilets in passenger coaches by Zonal Railways, Railway Board decided to place a bulk order for supply, installation and commissioning of approximately 80,000 bio-toilets in in-service coaches. “As against 33,783 bio-toilets which were to be supplied to 16 Zonal Railways up to March 2017, only 14,274 bio-toilets were supplied by the firms. Out of these, 12,016 bio-toilets were fitted in coaches up to March 2017,” it said. CAG also highlighted that out of the nine firms, on which orders were placed, seven firms, had complaints pending against them regarding quantity and quality of material supplied during 2015-16 and 2016-17.

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Almost 2 lakh complaints of choking, foul smelling bio-toilets in trains: CAG

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PTI|Dec 19, 2017,The Economic Times
NEW DELHI: Almost two lakh complaints regarding choking, foul smelling and non-functional bio- toilets in trains were received from the public in 2016-2017, a report of the Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG) said today.

The CAG, in its report on ‘Induction of bio-toilets in passenger coaches in Indian Railways’, has said that out of the 613 trains being handled in 32 coaching depots it audited, 160 trains did not have bio-toilets.

“In the remaining 453 trains having 25,080 bio-toilets, 1,99,689 instances of deficiencies or complaints were noticed,” the report stated.

With 1,02,792 complaints, choking seemed to be the most common problem for passengers regarding bio-toilets, the report said, followed by complains of foul smell (16,375), non-functional toilets (11,462), non-availability of dustbins (21,181), non-availability of mugs (22,899) and other complaints like ball valve failure and wire ropes (24,980).

The report has said that 1,02,792 cases of choking in 25,080 bio toilets imply “that one bio-toilet got choked four times in a year during 2016-2017.” During 2015-2016, for 24,675 bio toilets, 61,088 cases of choking were seen.

“This shows that instances of choking of bio-toilets increased in 2016-2017 and needs to be addressed,” it said.

The report said that 33.89 per cent of the choking cases were noticed in Bengaluru coaching depot in South Western Railway alone, which handles only 1.6 per cent of the total bio-toilets, implying that one bio-toilet got choked 83 times in a year.

The report which is based on audit for the period 2014- 2015-2016-2017 and was submitted in Parliament today, also provided Railways’ view on the stinking and choking bio- toilets.

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S.K.
Bio-toilets are a very dumb idea. FEKU should have learned the best practice of rlys in the West.

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Bio-vacuum toilets will keep the stench away in trains

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Bio-toilets like these will be replaced by bio-vacuum ones

By Richa Sharma | Express News Service | Published: 04th December 2017
NEW DELHI: Stinky toilets in trains will soon be flushed away. Starting January 2018, Indian Railways will roll out first 100 coaches with bio-vacuum toilets like the ones in passenger airplanes. The bio-toilets in trains will be odour free, cut down water usage by one-twentieth and will have much lesser chances of getting blocked.

The Railways has been grappling with upkeep of bio-toilets as there were several complaints of them getting blocked due to dumping of waste such as plastic bottles, paper, cardboard boxes in the pot. Trials of bio-vacuum toilets were done in the Railways’ newly-launched premium train Tejas, and it has now been decided to install them out in other trains.

“To start with, Chennai-based Integral Coach Factory (ICF) will roll out 100 coach sets fitted with bio-vacuum toilets starting January 2018. Initially, these toilets will be fitted in AC-I and AC-II tier coaches of select trains

like Rajdhani, Shatabdi and Duronto,” said a senior Railway ministry official. Foul odour and high water consumption were also major reasons that made Railways decide to replace existing bio-toilets with the bio-vacuum ones. Typically, a conventional toilet or bio-toilet uses 10-15 litres of water per flush, whereas the vacuum toilet consumes only approximately 500 ml of water for flushing.

“A bio-vacuum toilet has a suction pump that sucks waste without need for much water to flush it. This will also help in containing the foul smell as bio-digesters will eat up the waste,” the official added.
Initially, the Railways will have to shell out more money to for bio-vacuum toilets as they will have to be imported. A bio-toilet costs Rs 2.5 lakh, while a bio-vacuum one is for Rs 3.25 lakh.

“The cost is likely to come down once we plan to have bio-vaccum toilets in all coaches. The manufacturers have assured us they will set up manufacturing units in India to meet the demand of these units,” the official added.

Over 79,500 bio-toilets have been fitted in more than 22,400 coaches till June this year. In the budget, Indian Railways was allocated Rs 1,155 crore for bio-toilets in passenger trains as part of the Prime Minister’s Swachh Bharat Mission.

In the loo-p

A bio-toilet uses 10-15 litres of water per flush while a bio-vacuum toilet consumes only around 500 ml
A bio-toilet costs Rs 2.5 lakh, a bio-vacuum one is for Rs 3.25 lakh.
Railways was given Rs 1,155 crore for bio-toilets in trains.