Clean Indian Railways trains! In a bid to make the country more cleaner, Narendra Modi-led government had introduced its flagship clean India program – Swachh Bharat Abhiyan which extended to having cleaner Indian Railways trains as well. Indian Railways has often in the past been criticised for unclean, smelly and bad hygienic facilities in trains. However, with the new program, housekeeping services have been introduced in Indian Railways. According to recent government data, around 1100 pairs of trains now have the facility of On Board Housekeeping Services (OBHS). These numbers include 575 pairs of trains that were added in the year 2015. Rajdhani Express, Shatabdi Express and other Express/ Mail trains that cover long-distance have these facilities, Minister of Railways and Commerce & Industry Piyush Goyal said in a written reply in Lok Sabha.
With the housekeeping facilities, passengers can ask for cleaning coach toilets, aisles, doorways and compartments when the train is running. The government has promised to provide these services in all long train journeys. The services can be availed under the “Clean my coach” initiative. All a passenger has to do is send a message to the prescribed number- 58888 for cleaning services. The message is sent to the housekeeping staff along with the details and coach number of the passenger.
After this, the staff reaches the passenger and carries out the cleaning procedure as requested. A “Cleanmycoach Indian Railways” app can also be downloaded in Android phones for registering a cleaning request or any complaint regarding it. All of these facilities are also present in recently launched corporate trains as well.
Meanwhile, Indian Railways has introduced the concept of bio-toilets for maintaining better hygienic standards. Last week, Goyal had announced that the department wants to ensure cleaner railway tracks and thus, has introduced bio-toilets that will not allow faecal matter to be deposited on railway tracks. Currently, around 68,020 bio-toilets have been installed, Piyush Goyal had said in a tweet. The initiative focuses on better sanitary conditions as well as the disposal of human waste. Facilities such as wireless automatic clog detection system, steam tap, bio-vacuum flushing system among others have been introduced.