Ministry of Railways reiterates its commitment to provide world-class facilities to passengers
Jun 05, 2020
New Delhi [India], June 5 : The Ministry of Railways on Friday reiterated its commitment to provide world-class facilities to its passengers through one of the best rail networks in the world.
"In order to provide a clean environment and smooth travel experience to its passengers, the Indian Railways has taken various steps under Swachh Bharat, Swachh Railways initiative," said the Ministry of Railways in a press release.
In the statement, the Ministry listed some important steps in this direction, which include 49,487 bio-toilets installed in 14,916 coaches during 2019-20. This takes the cumulative number of bio-toilets to more than 2,45,400 fitted in 68,800 coaches with a coverage of 100 per cent.
The Ministry of Railways, which has been lauded for the implementation of 'Swachhta Action Plan,' said that 200 railway stations were certified for the implementation of Environment Management System to ISO: 14001 in 2019-20.
"Independent third-party survey of passenger perception on cleanliness standards was carried out at 720 stations in 2019-20 against 407 stations," the press release said.
It further said: "More than 1,100 pairs of trains including Rajdhani, Shatabdi, Duronto and other important long distance Mail/Express trains are having the facility of On Board House Keeping Service (OBHS) for cleaning of coach toilets, doorways, aisles and passenger compartments during the run of the trains."
As an initiative to reduce, recycle and dispose of plastic waste generated in stations in an ecofriendly manner, comprehensive policy guidelines have been brought out for the installation of Plastic Bottle Crushing Machines (PBCMs) by the zonal railways.
At present, around 315 PBCMs have been installed at 229 stations including several district headquarters railway stations, while automatic coach washing plants (ACWP) have been installed at eight locations during 2019-20.
