Chennai :

Railway minister Suresh Prabhu on Sunday said 35,104 bio-toilets have been provided on trains and 30,000 more such toilets will installed in the current financial year.

The minister was speaking after inaugurating country’s first green corridor – the stretch between Rameswaram and Manamadurai — through video conferencing from Chennai Central railway station.

All the trains running on the section have bio-toilets. This has eliminated human defecation on the tracks.

The minister also inaugurated an upgraded free Wi-Fi at Chennai Central which uses 99 antennae provided by Google. The Wi-Fi was part of a larger plan to digitally connect Indians, a pet project of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Prabhu said.

He made a fervent appeal to the Tamil Nadu government to sign a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the railways and to participate in railway infrastructure projects.

“All your neighbouring states have signed memoranda with railways. I’ve written a letter to honourable chief minister J Jayalalithaa for her support. I’m awaiting a positive response,” he said.
Tamil Nadu has not yet signed the MoU with railways as it has demanded changes in the existing framework of rules under which a special purpose vehicle (SPV) would work.

Prabhu said Royapuram station could be developed as a third terminal in the city under a joint-venture with the state government. “We want to make terminals which would have better passenger amenities than airports,” he said.

source: http://www.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / The Times of India / News Home> City> Chennai / by Siddharth Prabhakar / TNN / July 24th, 2016