Bengaluru division railway stations fare poorly in survey
BENGALURU: The Bengaluru Railway Division got a rude wake-up call after the announcement of the national cleanliness survey results, that assessed 720 railway stations across the country. By securing a lowly rank of 597 among 611 non-suburban railway stations, Yelahanka railway station has fared the worst in the Bengaluru Division as well as the entire South Western Railway (SWR) Zone.
The topper in the division and the zone, Yesvantpur Railway Station, managed to get the 30th rank, while the busiest and most important station in the zone, Krantivira Sangolli Rayanna (Bengaluru City) station, had a dismal ranking at 148.
The results of the ‘Swachh Rail Swachh Bharat’ survey were made public earlier this week by the Ministry of Railways. This is the fourth such annual survey. South Western Railway Zone, comprising Bengaluru, Hubballi and Mysuru Divisions, ranked in the fifth position among 16 railway zones in the country, up by one rank compared to the previous year.
In further embarrassment to the Bengaluru Division, three of its stations are ranked beyond 500, with Malur (531) and Hindupur (556) joining Yelahanka to rank among the worst performers in the division.
KSR railway station, with a footfall of 2.5 lakh per day, and operating 111 pairs of Express and Mail trains, had the biggest fall from grace. It ranked among the top 10 ranks in A1 stations (stations that fetch an annual revenue of more than Rs 50 crore) in the 2017 cleanliness survey, while in last year’s survey, it ranked 11th. However, it has fetched an excellent score when it comes to green cover with 71.2%, the highest in the division. Yelahanka fares poorly in this section too, with just 16.3%, while Londa fared the worst with just 15% green cover.
A total of 38 stations in SWR have helped it secure a score of 723.5 out of 1,000. Shivamogga stands at second best with a ranking of 37, while Mysuru has bagged the 47th rank. When asked to explain the dismal performance, AK Singh, GM, SWR, said, “If you look at overall rankings, our zone has gone up from 6th place to 5th place this year. The parameters have undergone changes too. We will examine the reasons behind the low ranking and take action.”