New Delhi: Jodhpur railway station topped the list of the cleanest station, followed by Jaipur and Tirupati, a report on Station Cleanliness conducted by Quality Council of India (QCI) showed on Monday.
“This is the third such audit cum survey 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,” an official release said.
“During the last 4 years, the sanitation coverage in the country which was 38 percent in 2014 has gone upto 83 percent in the 2018. Nearly, 7 crore toilets have been constructed in the last 4 years, which is a major accomplishment,” Railways Minister Piyush Goyal while releasing the report said.
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, he added.
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 third position in the ranking. In A category stations, Marwar has been placed at first position, Phulera station has been placed at 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 includes 75 station in A1 and 332 station in A category stations.
Here is the complete list of the top scoring stations
A1 category stations (out of 75)
Jodhpur/North-Western Railway
Jaipur/North-Western Railway
Tirupati/South-Central Railway
A category stations (out of a total of 332)
Marwar/North Western Railway
Phulera/North -Western Railway
Warangal/South-Central Railway
Zonal Railway rankings
North Western Railway
South Central Railway
East Coast Railway
As per survey report, as compared to 2017 there is 9 percent improvement in top 100 stations, 14 percent in the next 100 stations, 20 percent in 201-300 stations and 31 percent in 301-407 stations.
Zones have shown 10-20 percent improvement, 4 zones have improved more than 20 percent and two zones have shown less than 10 percent improvement in cleanliness as compared to 2017.
The First survey was 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 percent) direct observation by QCI assessors of cleanliness in these areas (33.33 percent) and passenger feedback (33.33 percent). A 24x7 control room was set up and images were geo-tagged to monitor progress.
