NEW DELHI: The Indian Railways cleaned up more than 20,000 kilometres of tracks, collected over 4,000 tonnes of waste and 710 tonnes of plastic during a fortnight-long special cleanliness drive, officials said the Saturday.
As part of the drive, the railways also established “waste to arts selfi points” at 452 stations to encourage public participation and raise awareness about cleanliness.
“The drive was undertaken not only to enhance the aesthetics of railway stations and tracks, but also highlight the importance of environmental conservation and waste management in the rail network, reflecting the railways’ commitment to maintaining a cleaner and greener environment for passengers,” a railway ministry statement said.
The railways covered 45.20 crore square metres of areas during the drive, including cleaning of 20,182 kms of tracks. The statement said 7,285 stations, 2,754 trains and 18,331 offices were covered for cleanliness during the drive in which 465,723 people were engaged.
“The railways, apart from doing a slew of cleanliness activities, also cleaned up 11,756,611 metres of drains during the campaign and organised Nukkad Natak (street plays) at 821 locations.
The most important part was that the railway carried out 2259 anti-littering drives during which 12,609 people were penalised and 177,133 people were counselled for not littering the railway premises,” said Dileep Kumar, executive director (information & publicity), Railway Board.
“We also planted a record number of 263,643 saplings as part of this drive and collected 5400 tonnes of scrap at railway workshops,” Kumar said, adding that the special focus of this year’s drive was on cleanliness of railway tracks located in stations.
“The railways throughout the drive collected 710 tonnes of plastic waste and obtained 50,276 feedbacks on cleanliness from passengers. The ‘waste to art’ selfie points were also created at 452 stations and 19,759 dustbins were installed,” the ministry statement said. “The railways also launched Swachh Aahar (hygienic foods) at 2597 locations and cleaned 6,960 food stalls,” the ministry said.
Railway Board chairman and CEO Satish Kumar launched the ‘swachhata pakhwada (fortnight)’ on October 1 at Rail Bhawan by administering a swachhata pledge to officials.
Urging the railway officials to keep their premises clean, Kumar said, “We should not limit cleanliness practices only to the fortnight campaign; efforts should continue throughout the year.”
Railway personnel took part in the campaign with around 2,100 action plans and 3,250 cleanliness activities. Announcements were made in trains and stations for proper disposal of waste.