NEW DELHI: Filthy and poorly maintained train coaches may be a thing of the past as railways has now decided to focus on the cleanliness of trains and conduct an audit of all major trains like Rajdhani, Shatabdi and express trains.
To make zonal railways take cleanliness seriously, railways has also decided to link it to their performance evaluation.
The decision is in the continuance of efforts of railways ministry which has been focusing on changing its image, especially where cleanliness is concerned.
The issue was also discussed in length at the recent meeting of the chief mechanical engineers of all railway zones.
“Cleanliness in trains of different categories (Rajdhani, Shatabdi, Mail/Express and Day trains) will be audited similar to station audits. The grading should be published and would form the basis for evaluation of zonal railways performance,” revealed the minutes of the meeting.
Explaining the decision, a senior railway officer said the railway has already been focusing on cleanliness of stations. “Focusing on cleanliness in railways has been the focus of government. Cleanliness of trains is very important as the experience of passengers is what finally matters,” said the official.
Making it as an important criterion to evaluate the performance of railway zones will further push them to achieve the objective of cleaner trains.
The meeting also decided to focus on the cleanliness of toilets and focus on saving water. It discussed a new “design bio-toilets whereby water could be recycled for use during flushing”.
“Besides, leading to wastage of water, cleaning of the rake with pressure water jets in each trip may increase the incidence of corrosion in future. Alternative methods for cleaning with the minimal use of water needs to be devised,” the minutes said.
The railway ministry under Suresh Prabhu has been focusing on improving the cleanliness and taken series of steps. For instance, in 2016, the railways ranked stations on the basis of cleanliness. It also formed an environment directorate to focus on such initiatives.