Minister of Railways Releases Third Party Audit Report on Station Cleanliness

New Delhi: Minister of Railways, Shri Suresh Prabhakar Prabhu released Third Party Audit Report on Station Cleanliness and Inaugurated Swachh Rail Portal. Vishakhapatnam in Andhra Pradesh and Beas in Punjab is the Cleanest Station in A1, A Category Stations Respectively. Khammam station Comes 2nd Rank in Station Cleanliness in A Category from 285 Rank previous Year.

Minister of State for Railways Shri Rajen Gohain was specially present to grace the occasion. Chairman, Railway Board, Shri A. K. Mital, Member Rolling Stock Shri Ravindra Gupta, other Railway Board Members, Shri Adil Zainulbhai, Chairman, Quality Council of India  and senior officials were also present on the occasion. Adviser Environment & Housekeeping Management Shri AK Tewari conducted the proceedings.

Minister of Railways dedicated a “SWACHH RAIL PORTAL” to showcase rankings of stations and trains, methodology adopted for rankings and stations/trains specific dashboards.  This web portal http://www.railswachh.in will also be leveraged to seek passenger feedback on cleanliness on a continual basis.

Speaking on the occasion, Minister of Railways Shri Suresh Prabhu said that Indian Railways started third party Cleanliness Index of Stations since last year. Railways have accomplished a significant improvement in cleanliness at station. This index instils competitive spirit among the stations. The biggest challenge for cleanliness at the platforms is visitors along with the passengers, even the toilets are used by large number of visitors who are not Railway travellers. However, Railways have to move forward. The focus is on Platform cleanliness, coach cleanliness, toilets cleanliness in the coach & track cleanliness. Railways have introduced Clean My Coach services which is getting overwhelming response of the passengers, Four green corridors have been marked which are free from discharge of human waste. I urge the municipal corporation of the cities which have encroachments to come forward and cooperate in eliminating human waste from the tracks. He said that Vishakhapatnam has emerged as the winner in Cleanliness Index by securing Ist position in A1 category, Beas has emerged as Ist winner in A category station. Guwahati, Varanasi, Mughalsarai & Hazrat Nizamuddin Station have shown tremendous improvements, He said that lot of NGO’s, Students group have come forward to clean and beautify their stations. He also thanked & dedicated this achievement to the people in respective areas,

Background:

Indian Railways is the third largest rail network with 66,000 route kilometre stretch covering more than 8000 stations. Consequent to the launch of ‘Swachh Bharat Abhiyan’ on 2nd Oct’2014 by Hon’ble Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi, Indian Railways had also launched ‘Swachh Rail Swachh Bharat Abhiyan’ to achieve the vision of ‘Clean India’ by 2nd Oct’ 2019, which shall be the 150th Birthday of father of the Nation Mahatma Gandhi.

In the Rail Budget presented in Feb’2015, 2016 and 2017, series of measures to improve the cleanliness of stations were announced to take forward the momentum of ‘Swachh Rail Swachh Bharat’. One of the measures given in Feb’2016 Budget is ranking of A1 and A category stations based on regular periodic third party audit and feedback from passengers, with a view to identify unclean spots/gaps and to improve cleanliness standards and also to propel healthy competition among railway stations. Ministry of Railway (Environment and Housekeeping Management Directorate, Railway Board) commissioned a passenger feedback survey on cleanliness at major railway stations. The task of survey was entrusted to Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC).

First survey conducted by IRCTC in 2016 by conducting interviews of passengers at the stations on various parameters of cleanliness and rating them on these basis. The second survey has been conducted by Quality Council of India (QCI) who with the help of their partners have conducted the survey of 407 major railway stations (75 A1 category and 332 A category stations) of Indian Railways.

The parameters adopted for conducting the survey are: Evaluation of Process of cleanliness in Parking, main entry area, main platform, waiting room,(33.33%) direct observation by QCI assessors of cleanliness in these areas (33.33%) and passenger feedback(33.33%). A 24×7 control room was set up  and images were geo-tagged to monitor progress.

The survey was conducted through interviews with respondents on the questionnaire on cleanliness indicators, which was done face to face by survey teams by visiting each of the 407 stations across 16 Zonal Railways. Every passenger was asked to rate the cleanliness of stations objectively on 40 different cleanliness parameters.

Purely based on the survey on the cleanliness of stations and the analysis thereof, 407 major stations have been given rankings in this Report submitted by the survey agency to Ministry of Railways for scrutiny and further action. Final report is expected to be submitted by QCI shortly, which will include specific actionable items for each division. Ministry of Railways will take further action for improving the cleanliness standards at major stations of Indian Railways thereupon.