CHENNAI: Chennai
Egmore, which is the terminating station for south bound express trains, is the fourth most improved among A1 stations in 2018 as far as cleanliness is concerned, according to the Swachh Rail—
Swachh Bharat rankings for 407 A1 and A stations released on Monday.
Overall, the cleanliness ranking of Southern Railway, head-quartered in Chennai and covering TN and Kerala, has improved by two points from 2017. However, none of the 50 stations of Southern Railway which were surveyed found a place in the top 10 clean A1or A stations.
75 A1 stations with an annual passenger revenue of more than Rs 50 crore and 332 A stations with an earning between Rs 6 crore and Rs 50 crore were surveyed by Quality Council of India (QCI).
The cleanest station in SR is Ernakulam South which is 20th on the list of A1 stations. Egmore comes second, with an overall ranking of 27, while Chennai Central is third with an overall ranking of 36. Among A grade stations, Villupuram is top-ranked in SR, with an overall ranking of 31.
This is the third year the Indian Railways has surveyed stations for cleanliness. The survey was based on process evaluation, where assessors observed the frequency of cleaning activities, direct observation of the station’s areas, citizen feedback and interviews with station managers.
Statistics show that Chennai Central’s ranking has improved from 49 to 36 in 2018, as the score went up from 657 to 801.74. Egmore’s overall ranking went up from 62 to 27 in 2018 with its score increasing from 596.6 to 844.32 in 2018.
In the A station category, Jolarpet’s ranking and score improved from 85 to 54 and 700 to 857. Tambaram’s rankings also improved by 174 with its 2017 ranking being 236. Arakkonam’s rank went up from 254 to 95. Chengalpet’s ranking jumped up from 151to 56.
A senior railway official said the cleanliness contracts of five stations (Egmore, Central, Tambaram, Jolarpet and Chengalpet) has been taken over by the mechanical department from the medical department. “This has brought about a major change as mechanised cleaning is being done now. The improvement is also due to the formation of a separate wing (environment and housekeeping) in Railways, because of which more awareness campaigns can be conducted,” the official said.
