VIJAYAWADA: After achieving ‘gold' rating by Indian Green Building Council a few months ago, the Vijayawada division of South Central Railway (SCR) is now aiming to achieve ISO 14001:2015 certification for the city railway station for its compliance with the environmental management system.
According to the SCR officials, around 300 trains and 1.5 lakh passengers use the services of the railway station daily. For two consecutive years, the station had secured 4th rank for maintaining cleanliness among A1 Category stations of Indian Railways by the survey team of Quality Council of India (QCI). To improve its standards further, the officials concerned have applied for ISO 14001:2015 certification.
As part of it, a team of representatives from the certification firm will carry a ground-level inspection shortly on the station premises to verify the facilities being offered to the passengers.
During their inspection, the certification firm will consider the facilities being offered to the passengers that include drinking water supply and maintenance, usage of chemicals, sound pollution, waste disposal mechanism and eco-friendly facilities for the passengers. Apart from that, the team will also give suggestions to the officials concerned to improve the standards. In this regard, a team of staff are being trained to accompany the certification firm and implement their suggestions accordingly.
When contacted, Vijayawada Railway Station Director Ch Suresh said, ‘’We are providing drinking water to the passengers after purifying it in various stages. When it comes to solid waste management, stall owners were instructed to arrange two separate bins for segregating wet and dry wastes and also adopted the practice of handing over the generated garbage to the municipal corporation daily. Necessary measures are being taken to sensitise the passengers about UTS mobile application for unreserved tickets and make the station paperless.’’