If you’re a frequent long-distance train traveller, then you know the standard of toilets available in coaches. While the latrines are cleaned regularly, there is always a sense one gets that more could be done in cleaning it.
Fortunately, Indian Railways is now focusing on an entirely new toilet system, as reported in The Financial Express. The new toilets will be introduced in the E5 Shinkansen series bullet trains, and will comprise separate washrooms for men and women. Furthermore, there will be hot water facilities, and triple mirrors inside the washrooms.
The 731-seater E5 series Shinkansen bullet train, a new generation Japanese high speed train, will also have multi- purpose room to be used for breast feeding and also for sick passengers. Besides, there will be two extra-spacious toilets for wheelchair-bound passengers in the 10-coach high speed train.
The E5 Shinkansen series bullet trains will be introduced on the upcoming Mumbai-Ahmedabad high speed corridor. The Railways is gearing up to acquire the trains at a cost of Rs 5,000 crore.
However, urinals and toilets will be installed in alternate coaches in the train. For example, toilets will be installed in coach number 1, 3, 5, 7 and 9 while urinals will be available in coach number 2, 4, 6 and 8.
Washrooms for men and women will also be placed in similar way. There will be luggage space for business class passengers in the train. Besides business, there will be also Standard class passengers. While the train will have 698 seats for Standard class, 55 seats will be earmarked for Business class.
The bullet train with seating facility will take about 2 hours 7 minutes to travel 508-km distance between Mumbai and Ahmedabad. Most of the corridor will be elevated, except for a 21 km underground tunnel between Thane and Virar, of which 7 km will be under sea. The undersea tunnel was chosen to avoid damaging the thick vegetation present in the area.
The corridor will begin at the underground station in the Bandra-Kurla Complex in Mumbai, and then traverse 21 km underground before emerging above ground at Thane.
JICA has agreed to fund 81 per cent of the total project cost through a 50-year loan at an interest rate of 0.1 per cent and a moratorium on repayments up to 15 years.
Indian Railways will invest Rs 9,800 crore in the high- speed rail project and the remaining cost will be borne by the state governments of Maharashtra and Gujarat.
