‘Change Agents’ to monitor cleanliness at WR stations

The project which begins on Independence Day will conclude on Gandhi Jayanti

Mumbai: August 14, 2018. The view of the eastern side of the Bandra Railway Station, which has been identified as the 7th cleanest station in country and top in Mumbai, revealed in an audit cum survey report which has been conducted by Railways to increase level of cleanliness by identifying unclean spots/gaps and to improve cleanliness standards and also to propel healthy competition among railway stations. Union Railway minister Mr. Piyush Goyal releases the third-party survey report on Station Cleanliness conducted by Quality Council of India. In A1 Category Stations List, Jodhpur Station of NWR has been ranked first and Marwar Station of NWR ranked first in Zonal Railway Ranking while NWR Secured First Position on Station Cleanliness During the launch of the report Mr. Goyal said that under the Swachh Bharat Abhiyan, in last 4 years, “Swachh Rail Swachh Bharat� campaign has witnessed tremendous improvement. Photo: Arunangsu Roy Chowdhury.

The Western Railway (WR) will kick-start a pilot project to maintain and monitor cleanliness across its suburban network by deploying ‘Change Agents’ at eight key stations on Wednesday. The project which begins on Independence Day will conclude on Gandhi Jayanti, October 2.

Spreading awareness

Aarti Parihar, senior divisional commercial manager, WR, said, “The ‘Change Agents’ will monitor the implementation of cleanliness programmes and help us identify areas of improvement. They will also spread awareness among commuters that spitting and littering on the premises of stations will attract a penalty under the Railway Act.”

Under Section 198 of the Act, railway officials can impose fines between ₹200 and ₹500 on offenders.

The WR’s commercial department will deploy one personnel each at Churchgate, Mumbai Central, Dadar, Bandra Terminus, Andheri, Borivali, Vasai Road and Virar stations.

The personnel will be tasked with preventing the entry of unauthorised persons such as hawkers and vendors on platforms and foot overbridges. They will also have to monitor the functioning of passenger amenities such as pay-and-use toilets at the stations.

In the Railway Ministry’s recently released cleanliness assessment, Bandra Terminus at 7th position was the only station in Mumbai to figure in the top 10 list of cleanest stations in the country. WR was ranked fifth best out of 15 railway zones.