As a part of ‘Swachh Bharat Abhiyan’ of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Indian Railways to carry out a new survey to give a top rating as the cleanest train in the country. This is the first of its kind survey conducted by the railways as to bring cleanliness drive in the inside of the trains.

Around 200 trains are pitted against one another to get a top rating as the ‘cleanest train’ of the country. A similar survey was first conducted on railway stations all over the country in 2016 as part of the government’s Swachch Bharat Abhiyan.

A total of 475 rakes of these 210 trains are to be audited out of which 386 rakes have already been surveyed. The survey is being conducted by a third-party auditor engaged by IRCTC. A third-Party Survey cum Audit on Cleanliness of 210 important trains is currently being carried out. This work was entrusted to IRCTC who has engaged M/s IRCLASS for Audit / Survey and M/s IPSOS for Analysis and compilation of Report.

“It will be completely an independent survey on the cleanliness of the important trains. The survey will be carried out every year. Through this survey, Indian railways want to bring a sense of pride and competition among the zonal railways as well as the maintenance depots. The survey of trains is to be commenced in a couple of months,” informed an official of Indian Railways.

The survey will give points on parameters of cleanliness of onboard facilities like –

· Condition of toilets

· Equipment and Tools,

· Manpower,

· Vestibules and Doorways,

· Dustbins and linen,

· Pest management,

· Availability of watering,

· waste management,

· Onboard housekeeping staff and on arrival at stations.

The survey will start right before the trains start their journey and will end at the arrival of the destination station.

The survey will be also taking feedback from the passengers traveling on the train. This is the third such survey conducted by railways to maintain cleanliness in the railway network. In 2016 IRTC conducted its first survey where passengers at the stations were also interviewed.

Quality Council of India (QCI) conducted its 2nd survey in over 407 Major railway stations of the country. The next survey report for cleanliness of stations will start from July 2018.

· Indian Railways (IR) is the third largest rail network in the world

· It covers a stretch of 66,000 kilometers covering more than 8000 stations.

Central Government in its Railway budgets had announced a number of series to improve the cleanliness of stations under its ‘Swachh Rail Swachh Bharat’.