Hyderabad: Bio toilets for RTC staff, at last

Hyderabad: To pee or not to is a dilemma that male bus conductors and drivers often have to grapple with. In the case of women bus conductors, they have no choice but to agonizingly wait till they reach home.

In a welcome development, the Telangana State Road Transport Corporation (TSRTC) launched mobile bio toilets at nine changeover points in the city on Friday.

The mobile bus toilets are equipped with a resting space, changing room and e-toilets. Transport Minister P Ajay Kumar said, "The bio-toilets would be beneficial for women RTC employees as they have to wait long hours to attend to nature calls. It will prevent them from urinary tract infections (UTI) as well." He further added that 32 more mobile toilets would be added to the nine launched on Friday.

The bio-toilets that started functioning are at LB Nagar, NGOs Colony, Uppal X Roads, Chilkalguda X Roads, Below Secunderabad Metro Station, Secunderabad Station, Suchitra Junction, Lingampally and Mehdipatnam X Roads. A bio toilet involves decomposition mechanism system that uses high graded bacteria (aerobic and anaerobic) to decompose the human excretory. This process takes less consumption of water compared to non-bio toilets. As there is less consumption of water cleaning and maintaining the toilets is easy and can be done at regular intervals.

Sindhu, a conductor working under Hakimpet Bus Depot, said, "It takes 30 to 45 minutes from Hakimpet to JBS. There are no washrooms on the route. Now with the inauguration of the new bio-toilets, it will be beneficial for women as we won't have to hold on for too long to attend nature calls."

Sandhya, another conductor who works on the ECIL-Suchitra route, observes, "As there is no proper depot at Suchitra Junction, using a washroom gets very difficult. These bio toilets are a boon."

Sudhakar, a bus driver at Secunderabad Station, says, "There is toilet facility for anyone near the station. It gets very difficult for employees as sometimes we have to walk all the way to Secunderabad Station. The launch of these bio-toilets will be very helpful for employees, especially women. The mobile bio-toilets are made from scrap buses that completed 15 lakh kilometers and are no longer fit for public commuting.