Salem among top 10 cleanest railway stations

Salem memes - Salem Railway Junction has been rated as the most clean station among the divisional headquarters railway stations and also the ninth cleanest railway station in the entire country, according to a recent survey report.

The Indian Railways Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC) recently conducted a survey of major railway stations for cleanliness ranking. The TNS India Private Limited was involved in conducting the survey, which was commissioned by the Environment and Housekeeping Management Directorate, Railway Board, New Delhi.

The survey was conducted across major railway stations. Launched under the ‘Swachh Rail, Swachh Bharat Abhiyan’ with the objective of measuring passengers satisfaction with cleanliness at the station premises, the survey covered 407 major railway stations across the country – 75 A1 category stations and 332 A category stations.

The primary audience for the survey was passengers. During the survey, feedback was also gathered from railway officials, porters and vendors at each station who were part of the service improvement group and licensed porters and vendors in the station premises.

The results of this survey will be used for the ranking of A1 and A stations on cleanliness.

The research was designed to assess the cleanliness efforts and its implementation / success through a satisfaction survey. The objective of the study was to evaluate various cleanliness indices in the passenger interface areas of railway station as well as the mechanism in use and identify the satisfaction levels / shortcoming. Initially 47 parameters were framed, of which 22 were pertaining to infrastructure and enabling provisions; ten pertaining to processes and methodology and 15 on the outcome of upkeep and cleanliness.

The survey proved that of the total 407 railway stations, 105 station are at cleanliness level 1 and 2; 166 stations are at cleanliness level 3 and 136 stations are at cleanliness level 4 and 5.

The survey identified top ten divisional headquarters, among 68 railway divisions in Indian Railways, based on cleanliness scores. Salem Junction with cleanliness level ‘level 1’ was adjudged the most clean railway station among the divisional headquarters railway stations.

Salem Junction has also been adjudged as the 9th cleanest railway station in the entire country.

The Southern Railway has won yet another laurel, with Kumbakonam Railway Station in Tiruchi Railway division adjudged as the fifth cleanest railway station in the country.