Vizag tops clean rail station list

Visakhapatnam railway station is the cleanest, followed by the one in Secunderabad, among the 75 busiest stations.

According to a survey, the report of which was released by Railways Minister Suresh Prabhu here on Wednesday, the Jammu railway station occupied the third spot, while the New Delhi station stood at 39th. The Darbhanga railway station in Bihar was the dirtiest. The survey was carried out by the Quality Council of India.

The survey was carried out on 407 stations, of which 75 are in the A1 category, or busiest stations, and 332 are in the A category. Clean toilets at platforms, clean tracks and dustbins at stations were some of the criteria. This was the third survey on cleanliness done by the railways to keep a tab on its premises as part of Swachh Rail campaign.

“We want all stations to be clean. There are many which have improved their ranking,” Prabhu said.

Anand Vihar railway station here stood fifth. Nizamuddin station was placed at 23rd, while Old Delhi was at 24th. The one in Varanasi, the Lok Sabha constituency of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, ranked 14th.

The Beas railway station was the cleanest, followed by Khammam, in the A category. Ahmedanagar station was ranked third. Jogbani was the dirtiest in the A category.

The railways has about 8,000 stations which are classified into — A1, A, B, C, D, E and F categories — based on annual passenger revenue.

Stations that contribute over ~50 crore a year are A1 stations. A category stations contribute between ~6 crore and ~50 crore. All suburban stations are in the C category, while all halts are in the F category.