India's Cleanest Railway Stations Revealed, (and the Dirtiest)

BENGALURU: Gujarat’s Surat, Rajkot and Bilaspur in Chattisgarh have been declared the cleanest railway stations in the country followed by Solapur and Mumbai Central from Maharashtra, according to an IRCTC survey. Vadodara also makes the list at 8th position, making Gujarat the state having the most number of clean railway stations in the top ten. Donning the “hat of shame” for having the dirtiest stations are Mughalsarai in Uttar Pradesh and Pune accompanied by Guwahati, Hazrat Nizamuddin, Sealdah and Kanpur Central.

“The idea is to make the entire rail network clean. This is just the beginning of a process which will actually and eventually bring all stations on a par to a particular standard,” said Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu on the occasion.

The Preliminary Report on Assessment of Cleanliness Standards of Major Railway Stations, as Indian Railways calls it, was conducted in January and February this year, as part of the Swacch Bharat mission. Passengers were interviewed on the state of cleanliness of various stations on as many as 40 different parameters. However, the final report will be drafted after receiving suggestions on the existing infrastructure from the railway employees as well as non-railway service providers, the minister added.

The report surveyed about 407 railway stations that include 75A-1 stations and 332 A-category stations across 16 railway zones. A-1 railway stations are those that have annual revenue of more than 60 crores while A-category stations have annual revenue between 6 crore and 50 crores. Out of the 75 stations that have 60 crore annual earnings, Prime Minister Narendra Modi's constituency Varanasi features amongst the last in terms of cleanliness. Under the A-category Gandhidham, Jamnagar (Gujarat) and Vasco da Gama (Goa) are the cleanest amongst the 332 railways stations whereas Shahganj, Ballia and Janghai (Uttar Pradesh), Bakhtiyarpur and Madhubani (Bihar) stinks, the survey noted.

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