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The Railways is likely to widen the coverage of stations where it conducts cleanliness surveys — from 400 at present to almost 2,000 soon — by adding another 1,600 for random test checks and surveys.
Post this expansion, the survey will cover stations that cater to over 90 per cent of passengers. “We are hoping that by December, the Quality Council of India (QCI) will be able to report on 400 stations; apart from 600 stations and also conduct a random test of another 1,000 stations. Moreover, instead of one year, the survey should be done every six months,” said Railway Minister Piyush Goyal, hoping cleanliness becomes a way of life for the Railways and its users.
The Railways spent over ₹1.2 crore, excluding the Goods and Services Tax, to conduct the survey. “Overall quality of cleanliness has improved in 400 stations, according to a survey conducted by the QCI. The survey was conducted by surprise visits to the stations by a team of over 150 people in field,” said Adil Zanulbhai, Chairman, QCI.
Real-time basis
A control centre was set up at the QCI as 160 people conducted the surveys. Each researcher was trained for quality and consistency, two people were allotted to each station for two days. Some researchers used handheld devices to record the feedback. Data was collected on a real-time basis through an online platform, with feedback from 1.2 lakh passengers for the over 400 stations, including images. The survey was based on how much of waste was observed by people who surveyed the station, parking, main hall, waiting area of stations.
They had to interact with 200-300 people for each station, among others. Each of these inputs were given equal importance while ranking stations.
The Railways’ cleanliness survey was conducted by the QCI in 2017, while IRCTC conducted the survey in 2016, informed the release. The third party audit survey report of 2018 claims there is nine per cent improvement in top 100 stations, 14 per cent in the next 100 stations, 20 per cent in 201-300 stations and 31 per cent in 301-407 stations.
Apart from the Railways’ cleaning staff, cleanliness of stations also depend on expectation and behaviour of passengers, season of the survey, crowd, among others.
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