The all-India 25th ranking for Mysuru city railway station in terms of cleanliness has left local officials perplexed.
The rankings, which were released on Wednesday, are as per the third party audit of 407 railway stations in the country conducted by the Quality Council of India and commissioned by the Indian Railways.
Senior officials in the Mysuru Division told The Hindu that they are not only surprised by the ranking but have no information at all as to when the survey was conducted nor do they remember any team visiting the station in connection with it.
Another official said the 2016 survey conducted by IRCTC was based on public feedback elicited at random and even the sample size was negligible and lacked scientific basis. But since it was a third party audit conducted this year, the officials do not preclude the possibility of surprise visits by the inspecting team to collect data. But the general perception among the officials was that Mysuru was cleaner than most stations ranked above it and hence they were sceptical of the methodologies used.
The cleanliness index has been created to instil a competitive spirit among the stations. Mysuru – which secured 784 out of 1,000 marks — has been ranked second in the South Western Railway zone and 14th among the 332 A category stations that were surveyed. In fact, Mysuru and Bengaluru city railway station (Krantiveera Sangoli Rayanna station) —which was ranked 18th overall — are the only two stations in the State in the top 25 clean stations in the country.
Meanwhile, Divisional Railway Manager Atul Gupta said that not withstanding the rankings, maintenance of cleanliness will always receive priority and dustbins have been installed at distance of every 22 meters – being the length of each coach while mechanical scrubbing is also in place.
The platforms are cleaned and mopped thrice a day while all the six platforms have washable apron to mechanical clean the track with high speed jet stream to remove human and other wastes discharged on the track.
Meanwhile, efforts are on to embellish the main station with murals highlighting places of interests and monuments. “The railway station is a gateway to the city and should impress tourists who visit Mysuru and discussions are in advanced stage,” Mr. Gupta said. These paintings are in addition to the art works that will embellish the new subway connecting all the six platforms and will go a long way in beautification of the station, he added.
