Indian Railways conduct survey to check cleanliness standards in stations

Minister of Railways, Coal, Finance & Corporate Affairs, Shri Piyush Goyal has released a report on Station Cleanliness conducted by Quality Council of India (QCI). Railway Board Members, Chairman, Quality Council of India & Senior Officials of Railway Board were specially present to grace the occasion.

This is the third such audit cum survey which has been conducted by Railways to increase the level of cleanliness by identifying unclean spots/gaps and to improve cleanliness standards and also to propel healthy competition among railway stations.

Speaking on the occasion, Shri Piyush Goyal said that Swachh Bharat Abhiyan launched by the Hon'ble Prime Minister, Shri Narendra Modi is the greatest tribute to Mahatma Gandhi. He added that during the last 4 years, the sanitation coverage in the country which was 38% in 2014 has gone up to 83% in 2018.

Nearly, 7 crore toilets have been constructed in the last 4 years, which is a major accomplishment. The Minister further added that Railways has been prioritizing cleanliness, punctuality and catering services for the passengers. In last 4 years, Swachh Rail Swachh Bharat Campaign has witnessed tremendous improvement in terms of cleanliness in waiting area, platforms, trains, toilets, parking at the stations.

The Minister went on to state that the cleanliness rankings of the stations will not only be a reward for the stations that have performed well but will also be an impetus for further improvement for the ones that didn't make it to the top rankings. He added that this year the cleanliness rankings conducted by Quality Council of India shows that in A-1 category stations, two important tourist stations i.e. Jodhpur (1st place) and Jaipur (2nd place) of North Western Railway in Rajasthan have made their mark. Tirupati, which is another important religious station, in South Central Railway, has been placed at the third position in the ranking.

In A category stations, Marwar has been placed at the first position, Phulera station has been placed at the second position. Both the stations are again from North Western Railway in Rajasthan. Third place goes to Warangal station of South Central Railway in Telangana.

The third report of Third Party Audit-cum-Survey of ranking of cleanliness covers 407 stations which include 75 stations in A1 and 332 stations in A category stations. The top scorers are as under:

• A1 category stations (out of 75)

1^st: Jodhpur/North-Western Railway

2^nd: Jaipur/North-Western Railway

3^rd: Tirupati/South-Central Railway

• A category stations (out of a total of 332)

1^st: Marwar/North Western Railway

2^nd: Phulera/North -Western Railway

3^rd: Warangal/South-Central Railway

• Zonal Railway rankings are:

1^st: North Western Railway

2^nd: South Central Railway

3^rd: East Coast Railway

Salient features of the report:-

• As per survey report, as compared to 2017 there is 9% improvement in top 100 stations, 14% in the next 100 stations, 20% in 201-300 stations and 31% in 301-407 stations.
• 10 Zones have shown 10-20% improvement, 4 zones have improved more than 20% and two zones have shown less than 10% improvement in cleanliness as compared to 2017.
• As a result of the policy decision taken for conducting such periodical annual surveys, the survey is conducted with a view to identify unclean spots/gaps and to improve cleanliness standards and also to propel healthy competition among railway stations.
• The survey has also been conducted in 2018 by Quality Council of India (QCI) with the help of their partners. For the purpose of survey and audit, QCI has trained and deployed 160 assessors to ensure quality and consistency. QCI has deployed 2 persons on each station for 2 days and the Central team consisted of 3 persons for 25 days. Thus a total of 1628 maydays were deployed.
• 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 bases. The second survey in 2017 was conducted by Quality Council of India.
• The parameters adopted for conducting the survey were: 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 24x7 control room was set up and images were geo-tagged to monitor progress.