Is drinking water at railway stations safe? Inside CAG’s E. coli findings and two decades of warnings

The CAG report, titled Passenger Amenities and Sanitation at Non-Suburban Railway Stations in Indian Railways, presented in Parliament on August 12, 2026, found E. coli in water-cooler samples at eight railway stations — Coimbatore and Palakkad Junction in Southern Railway; Hyderabad in South Central Railway; Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus, Bhiwandi Road, Kalyan and Lonavala in Central Railway; and Madhupur in Eastern Railway.

The audit also found total coliform bacteria, including E. coli, in drinking-water samples collected from platform taps at 49 stations in eight zones during 2022-23 and 56 stations in nine zones during 2023-24.

The problem extended to the systems meant to test the water. Bacteriological analysis was not carried out at 59 stations across six zones, chemical analysis was not conducted at 179 stations across 11 zones, and at another 77 stations, testing was not done at the prescribed frequency, according to the CAG report.

Residual-chlorine testing was not carried out at 78 stations across 13 zones. Multi-parameter field test kits had not been provided at 436 stations across 15 zones.

Indian Railways told FE.com that following the CAG report on drinking water quality, a day-long review was held by Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw and other senior officials and immediate corrective measures have been ordered.

A new “Tank to Tap” water filtration system will be installed at about 20,000 locations across the network, including water coolers, along with a comprehensive filtration and monitoring system. Water tanks will also be replaced, the Railways said.

It added that strict compliance will be enforced on “regular water quality testing at source and outlet points”, centralised monitoring and accountability and scheduled cleaning and maintenance of storage tanks.

“This is a top priority area and will be monitored directly at the Board level,” it said, adding that water quality reports will be published periodically. The drive covers all CAG observations.

The warning goes back nearly two decades

Concerns over drinking-water safety on the Railways are not new.

In its 2006 audit of Railway medical and health services, the CAG noted that the Railway Board had instructed in July 2004 that potable-water samples should be 100% satisfactory. Yet drinking-water samples at Varanasi, Chhapra and Gorakhpur failed safety tests 18, 25 and four times, respectively, during April 2003-March 2004.

On East Coast Railway, 8% of samples tested in 2004-05 were found unsafe. On Northeast Frontier Railway, 7.3% of bacteriological samples and 23% of chlorine-content samples were unsatisfactory.

The CAG also found that remedial measures had not been taken to improve drinking-water quality in the cases it examined, and responsibility had not been fixed.

Nearly two decades later, the latest audit has again found gaps in the testing system, with prescribed checks not being conducted at dozens of stations and testing equipment unavailable at hundreds.

From unsafe water to unhygienic water points

The CAG’s 2007 audit of cleanliness and sanitation on Indian Railways found that 28% of A-category stations and 30% of B-category stations did not provide tapped drinking water at the recommended scale.

Water booths or taps were defective or broken at 61 stations. Areas around water taps were also found covered with slush and dirt, while the audit noted variations in the frequency of bacteriological and chlorine-level testing.

The latest audit again found problems around the infrastructure supplying drinking water.

Records of cleaning and rubbing of drinking-water storage tanks were unavailable at 122 stations across 15 zones. At another 39 stations across seven zones, tanks were not adequately protected from pollution by birds or animals and algae growth.

One photograph in the report shows an inadequately covered water tank at Palakkad, with trees nearby inhabited by bats and birds. Palakkad Junction is also among the eight stations where the latest audit found E. coli in a water-cooler sample.

Even major stations are still falling short

The problem was not confined to smaller stations even then. The CAG’s 2007 audit of cleanliness and sanitation on Indian Railways found that 28% of A-category and 30% of B-category stations had not provided tapped drinking water at the recommended scale. It specifically said that several important stations — including Mumbai CST, Mumbai Central, Chennai Central and Chennai Egmore — did not meet even the bare minimum requirements. Water booths and taps were found defective or broken at 61 stations, while areas around taps were covered with slush and dirt.

Nearly two decades later, the latest CAG audit has again found deficiencies at some of the Railways’ highest-priority and highest-footfall stations. The 2026 report identified shortcomings at Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus, Howrah, Sealdah, New Delhi and Mumbai Central, among other major stations. At NSG-1 stations, drinking-water taps were deficient at 12 stations, while fans and water coolers were deficient at eight stations each.

CSMT is particularly relevant: it is among the stations where the audit found basic passenger-amenity deficiencies, while its water-cooler samples were also tested for E. coli.

Rules have changed. The gaps remain

In April 2018, the Railway Board prescribed Minimum Essential Amenities (MEA), Recommended Amenities (RA) and Desirable Amenities (DA) for stations and stipulated that MEA should be ensured at all stations by August 31, 2018.

Yet the latest audit found deficiencies in one or more MEA at 458 of the 512 stations examined — more than 89%.

The CAG’s analysis of the Passenger Amenities Management System found shortfalls of latrines at 201 stations, urinals at 403 stations and drinking-water taps at 2,035 stations.

The audit also found that adequate drinking-water taps were still unavailable at 188 stations, despite the Ministry having stated in its Action Taken Note following an earlier CAG audit that adequate taps had been provided.

The gap is also visible in passenger complaints. RailMadad data showed complaints relating to water availability rising from 4,548 in 2022-23 to 5,526 in 2023-24. Cleanliness complaints rose from 8,624 to 11,710.

It’s not simply a question of money

The CAG also found persistent underutilisation of the Budget Grant for passenger amenities, with nearly ₹6,000 crore remaining unutilised in 2023-24.

The Audit also reviewed 395 passenger-amenity works and found 59% were delayed, with delays ranging from one year to more than four years.

The latest audit outlined some deficiencies that can be corrected. On revisiting 325 non-Amrit Bharat stations three months after its initial inspection, the CAG found improvements in drinking-water taps at 25 stations and water coolers at six.

But several improvements came after the deficiencies had been pointed out by Audit.

Two decades later, the question remains

The CAG has recommended compliance with prescribed protocols for inspection of water-supply systems and comprehensive testing of drinking water under the Uniform Drinking Water Quality Protocol.

From unsafe samples flagged in 2006, to drinking-water and sanitation concerns in 2007, implementation gaps in 2016, the Minimum Essential Amenities deadline in 2018, and E. coli-positive water-cooler samples in 2026, the audit trail shows that the problem has persisted despite successive measures.

For the passenger, the test remains simple:

Is the tap working? Is the water clean? And can it be safely consumed?

The latest CAG findings suggest that those basic questions still cannot be answered with confidence at every railway station.