Kalyan, Kurla and Thane among the 10 dirtiest stations in the country

Kalyan, Kurla and Thane among the 10 stations found most unclean.

Three of the busiest stations in the city have to bear the ignominy of being among the 10 dirtiest stations in the country. In a survey conducted by Indian Railways between May 11 and May 17, Kanpur emerged as the dirtiest station in the country. Mumbai is the only city with three stations in the list – Kalyan (3rd), Lokmanya Tilak Terminus (5th) and Thane (8th).

Among the passengers surveyed, 58.74 said they were not happy with the cleanliness at Kalyan - a station through which 2.15 lakh passengers pass daily. Ninety pairs of long-distance trains and 572 local trains are handled at Kalyan. The percentage of unhappy commuters stood at 55.89 for LTT and 55.72 for Thane.

To improve passenger amenities at trains and stations, the Railways collects feedback from passengers through Interactive Voice Response System. Under this system, passengers are contacted randomly on the phone numbers submitted at the time of booking tickets, and are asked to give feedback on six areas – cleanliness of stations and trains, catering, air-conditioning, food, punctuality and bedrolls.



According to a senior railway officer, on an average, around 60-70 calls are made each day for each train. “Efforts are made to make approximately one lakh calls per day to passengers. The feedback will help improve passenger amenities and also help fix accountability of service providers,” he said.

An officer of Central Railway (CR), under which all three stations fall, said that steps are being taken to improve the cleanliness of the stations named in the survey. “At LTT, the contract for mechanised cleaning was awarded last month. At Kalyan and Thane, the contract process is going on. Very soon it will be placed,” he said. He also blamed the shortage of water for the lack of cleanliness at LTT, a station which is used by 50,000 passengers daily.

Vishal Agarwal, additional general manager of CR, said that the process to upgrade facilities at all stations had already started.