The Visakhapatnam Railway Station in Andhra Pradesh has been adjudged the cleanest station in the country followed by Secunderabad station in Hyderabad. These are the findings of a survey of 407 busy railway stations across the country, conducted by the Quality Council of India and released by the Ministry of Railways on Wednesday.
Out of the total 407 stations surveyed, 75 are in the A-1 category or most busy stations
category and 332 are in the A category.
As per the report released by Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu, the Jammu Railway Station is placed third on the list, while Delhi’s Anand Vihar station is fifth, Nizamuddin station ranks 23rd and Old Delhi Railway Station comes in at number 24.
While the Darbhanga Railway Station in Bihar has been judged as the dirtiest of the lot in the A-1 category coming in at the 75th position, New Delhi Railway Station has been ranked number 39 on the list.
In the A category, the Beas Railway Station in Punjab is the cleanest, followed by Khammam in Telangana. Ahmednagar station in Maharashtra is ranked third. Jogbani in Bihar’s Araria District is the dirtiest in the A category.
“We want all stations to be clean. There are many stations, which have improved their cleanliness ranking from last time,” Prabhu said. The railway station at Varanasi, the lok Sabha constituency of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, is ranked at 14th position.
Clean toilets, clean tracks and dustbins at stations were some of the criteria for judging railway stations for their cleanliness. This is the third survey on cleanliness done by the Indian Railways to keep tabs on rail premises as part of its ‘Swachchh Rail’ campaign.
The Indian Railways has about 8,000 stations which are classified into seven categories — A1, A, B, C, D, E and F based on their annual passenger revenue. The stations which contribute more than Rs 50 crore a year in passenger revenue are considered to be A-1 stations. The A category stations contribute between Rs 6 crore to Rs 50 crore as annual passenger revenue.
All suburban stations are in C category, while all halts are in the F category. The Railways will now carry out a survey of 200 trains on cleanliness.
Meanwhile, Prabhu lauded Akshay Kumar for the actor’s endeavours in spreading awareness about the Swachchh Bharat Abhiyan through his upcoming film “Toilet: Ek Prem Katha”.