Surat has the cleanest railway station in the country, followed by Rajkot and Bilaspur (Chhattisgarh), according to an Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC) survey, released on Thursday.
However, the railway station in Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s constituency Varanasi is ranked poorly in terms of cleanliness; it stood at 65 among the 75 A-1 railway stations (those earning revenue more than Rs. 50 crore) surveyed. The survey that was conducted based on feedback from around 1.34 lakh passengers is a part of Mr. Modi’s pet project ‘Swacch Bharat Abhiyaan’.
“The idea is to make the entire rail network clean, including stations, tracks and other railway premises. We decided to do a survey to bring out the present situation…This is a beginning to bring all the stations at par. We will also launch major [passenger] awareness programme,” Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu said while releasing the Preliminary Report on Assessment of Cleanliness Standards of Major Railway Stations.
The survey was conducted at 407 railway stations, which included 75 A-1 stations and 332 A category stations. Around 40 per cent of all the stations surveyed fared ‘average’ in terms of cleanliness.
Among the A-category stations (those with revenue between Rs. 6 crore and Rs. 50 crore), Beas (Punjab) followed by Gandhidham (Gujarat), Vasco Da Gama (Goa), Jamnagar (Gujarat), Kumbakonam (Tamil Nadu) and Nasik Road (Maharashtra) were among the cleanest railway stations.
The survey was conducted in January-February this year and passengers were asked questions on 40 cleanliness parameters.
IRCTC will soon submit the final report to the Railway Ministry that will include responses from railway staff and non-railway service providers.
