Indian Railways takes another step to enhance cleanliness! After railway stations, 200 trains to be ranked on cleanliness! For this purpose, Piyush Goyal-led Indian Railways has undertaken an elaborate, independent audit-cum-survey exercise of 200 crucial trains. The audit-cum-survey will also include Shatabdi Express, Rajdhani Express as well as Duronto Express trains. According to an IANS report, the checklist of the audit team includes many factors such as cleanliness of toilets, the performance of the on-board housekeeping service, quality of linen, and the types of chemicals used for cleaning. Though in the past, railway stations have been audited twice, this is for the first time that Indian Railways trains are being ranked by the audit teams for cleanliness.
Other than 72 pairs of premier trains, the audit-cum-survey will also cover 128 trains services, including Intercity Express, Jan Shatabdi Express, Sampark Kranti and other distant mail or express train services. These trains will be covered by 50 audit teams, formed in order to complete the task in the next couple of months. To conduct the audit, the teams have spread out across all the railway zones to collect feedback from 60 passengers for each mail or express train and at least 100 passengers for each premier train. A senior Railway Ministry official was quoted in the report saying that it is an independent, third-party survey and for this, the audit teams will have to cover one round trip for each train, collecting passenger feedback.
Other than passenger feedback, the team will also check the cleanliness of the entire train, including toilets. Additionally, the teams will also check the performance of on-board housekeeping service (OBHS). All premier train services such as Shatabdi Express, Rajdhani Express and Duronto Express provide OBHS facility to passengers.
According to the report, since the focus is on cleanliness, many aspects such as cleanliness schedule, training of individuals doing the cleaning, use of approved chemicals in the cleaning activity, equipment, clothes used for cleaning, the method of cleaning and handling of chemicals will be covered by the survey.