This Waterless, Odorless Toilet Concept Designed By A Student Has Won Him An Award From The Railways
Vinod Anthony Thomas, a tenth semester student of architecture, at Manipal University has bagged second prize in a competition by the Indian Railways for innovative waterless and odorless toilets in trains.
Vinod's design was adjudged the second best by Research Designs and Standards Organization, Lucknow, and he bagged Rs 75,000 as prize money. The second place was shared by another designer, Rahul Garg and teammate Saurabh Hans.
Vinod's toilet does away with the unhygienic problem of disposal of human waste on the tracks. His project also mentions that the existing model of toilets are not subjected to effective flushing, resulting in the accumulation of dirt and therefore the foul smell.
His design introduces a system of waste management which prevents generation of foul smell and replaces the system of flushing with water by a conveyor system carrying waste in a hermetically sealed pocket to a large collection bin to store waste and is run manually by a crank wheel.
The bin has been designed in a way to reduce the amount of waste by way of decomposition and forced ventilation (evaporation of water).
Director, Faculty of Architecture, Prof Nishant H Manapure said that Vinod has brought laurels to Manipal University by bagging the second prize at the important competition. ¡°It¡¯s first of its kind for FOA and am hopeful the students will showcase their talent in future also¡±.
If Vinod's design concept gets selected, soon railway passengers could get a more comfortable travel.
Bobins Abraham is the Assistant News Editor at Indiatimes. He has more than twelve years of experience in TV and digital journalism. An avid student of history and geopolitics, he is a conservationist and environmentalist at heart. He writes on environment, sustainability, human-animal conflict and more.
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