New Delhi, Jun 6 (IANS): As part of its "Swachh Rail-Swachh Bharat" initiative, the Indian Railways has installed bio toilets across 68,000 coaches.

"A total of 49,487 bio-toilets have been installed in 14,916 coaches during 2019-20. This takes the cumulative number of bio-toilets to more than 2,45,400 fitted in 68,800 coaches with a coverage of 100 per cent," the Indian Railways said in a statement.

This comes at a time when the country is dealing with an unprecedented health crisis caused by the deadly coronavirus, and the only cure to this fast spreading disease is "cleanliness" and "proper hygiene".

Integrated mechanised cleaning is also being provided at 953 railway stations pan India.

More than 1,100 pairs of trains, including Rajdhani, Shatabdi, Duronto and other important long distance mail/express trains, have been equipped with the facility of Onboard House Keeping Service (OBHS) for cleaning of coach toilets, doorways, aisles and passenger compartments during the run of the trains.

The Railways also informed that the OBHS service is also supported by SMS-based on demand "Coach-Mitra" service to cover over 1060 pairs of trains.

While cleanliness remains a key step, sustainable use of resources is equally important, and for this, comprehensive policy guidelines have been issued by the Indian Railways for installation of plastic bottle crushing machines (PBCMs) by the zonal railways.

"At present, around 315 PBCMs have been installed at 229 stations including several district headquarters railway stations," the statement said.

Automatic coach washing plants (ACWP) have been installed in eight locations while quick watering facility at 29 locations have also been installed in order to reduce water filling time at the stations.