Railways to make clean sweep

More than half the suburban train stations in Chennai railway division have not had proper cleaning done for months now. Cleaning contracts of 42 stations expired about two months ago. To make matters worse, the contracts of remaining 30 stations in the division are expiring next month. Several stations are undertaking the cleaning work with a fifth of their original budget. 

DTNext has reliably learnt that several stations on Beach-Velachery MRTS route in particular are spending Rs 13,000 per month on cleaning, against the sanctioned amount of Rs 65,000 (contract value). While officials treat it as a stop- gap arrangement, which is expected to continue till the new tenders get finalised, hygiene quotient of the stations has hit the nadir in the interim, as this paper found out following frequent visits to a number of railway stations in the city.

After months, the struggle for a clean drive is set to change. A senior railway officer told this paper that the maintenance (cleaning) budget for C class station (suburban stations) has been doubled to Rs 80,00090,000 per month. Senior SR officers revealed that it has been a struggle to find competent contractors. At least on a few occasions, tenders were cancelled and refloated more than once, either due to stringent contractual clauses or lack of good contractors, official sources revealed. However, that could change. For the first time ever, Railways would be calling for e-tenders for cleaning, which would ensure more transparency and invite participation of competent contractors. “The interim period would be a little difficult, but everything would fall in place and the system would be alive and kicking once new contracts are awarded,” said a divisional commercial manger.

Chennai Central, Egmore and Madurai fall under A and A1 stations. The maintenance contract of A1 station like Chennai Central would be in the range of Rs 1.5 crore (two years).  A and A1 category stations are maintained by the health department. The Chief Medical Superintendent directly supervises the hygiene level of A1 category stations, which currently outsource the cleaning work. Both ‘B’ and ‘C’ class stations (C class -suburban stations) are managed by the commercial department. Officials confirmed that e-tenders are being floated for the first time for conservancy works in the suburban stations. A ball park estimate puts the average maintenance budget of suburban stations at Rs 40,000 per month. The amount would be higher if it were for a station like Beach, where the MRTS and EMU services converge. Additionally, the tender value has been recently doubled from Rs 40,000 to between Rs 80,000 and Rs 90,000 recently. Existing provisions allow for imposing penalty on contractors for not meeting the requirement or for not employing sufficient workforce or for failure to use promised machinery.

Indian Railway created a new directorate for environment and housekeeping management in the Railway Board. On a trial basis, environment and housekeeping management wing has been established in the southern, northern and south central railway zones. The post of chief engineer and divisional engineer (environment and housekeeping management) in mechanical department has been set up. Separate officials are also appointed for Tiruchy and Madurai divisions.

Following the Swachh Bharat initiative, Indian Railway has promised some seismic changes. It includes:  A bin for every 10 meters in stations, and colour-coded bins. (Green for bio-degradable and red for non bio-degradable).

Waste disposal, hitherto handled by municipal corporations, would be handled by the railways. On a trial basis Chennai, Tiruchy and Thiruvananthapuram divisions are planning to establish their own treatment plants and generate electricity from solid waste. The plant in Chennai is set to come up near where the old circus was , behind MMC (Moore Market Complex). Also on the cards is the laundry facility, to come up as Boot (build, own, operate, transfer). It will come up at Coimbatore, Madurai and Basin Bridge and a few other stations to improve the quality of bed rolls provided in trains. Authorities are also planning to issue contracts soon for on- board housekeeping. One house keeping staff per (or two) coach would be sent from originating stations on express trains. The medical department, which currently manages Chennai Central and Egmore stations, would hand over conservancy and housekeeping work to the mechanical department. The latter, which is responsible for rolling stock maintenance, has already taken over Jolarpet station. Integrated housekeeping is set to be introduced, and one agency will handle both, coach and station cleaning.