Next mission of Railways is ‘swachh’ suburban stations

Divisional railway manager (DRM), Chennai, Anupam Sharma, who is understood to have chaired a special meeting to discuss stations maintenance here last week, had instructed commercial inspectors of every section in the division to submit a report on improving station hygiene. 

The meeting is learnt to have been held following a DTNext expose on cleanliness of stations going for a toss owing to expiry of maintenance contracts in 42 out of the 72 suburban stations in the division. Contracts of the remaining 30 stations would expire this month. 

“Normally, station maintenance and toilet works would be one of the agendas, which would get a few minutes’ attention during such meetings, but this is the first time the DRM had convened a meeting exclusively to discuss station maintenance, particularly toilets and garbage disposal at stations,” a source privy to the meeting told this paper, revealing that complaints poured in as the DRM elicited commercial inspectors’ views on the subject during the meeting.

The inspectors had mainly expressed concern over inadequate funding for maintenance works. Officers cannot easily dismiss inspectors’ apprehensions as unfounded this time given that many of the suburban stations have been undertaking conservancy work with a fourth of their original maintenance budget of late. One of the officers who took part in the meeting said the commercial inspectors, who are commercial supervisors appointed to oversee maintenance and hygiene of stations, had also admitted to receiving complaints about delinquent contractors who either keep the toilets closed or do not maintain them properly at stations. 

Though sections like Park-Velachery, Park-Tambaram and Chennai-Gummidippondi have only one or two sanitary inspectors per section, busy stations like Beach, Chennai Central and Egmore have dedicated commercial inspectors to monitor maintenance due to high footfall. The DRM has given two weeks to the commercial inspectors to table their reports on improving respective stations’ hygiene. Officers requesting anonymity admitted that the inputs taken from inspectors would be evaluated and applied before floating e-tenders (first time for conservancy works) for station maintenance contracts shortly.

CMRL (Chennai metro rail limited) has withdrawn its trial train from the service loop at Alandur station barely a day after taking its first four-car metro rake on the service loop at Alandur station. On Wednesday, CMRL had conducted a maiden test run on the service loop at Alandur station to assess the operational difficulties faced in operating direct trains services from Koyambedu to the airport.

When asked, a CMRL officer requesting anonymity said, “We took a train for testing, but it has been withdrawn now, as work is still going on.” Currently, commuters from Koyambedu side are forced to changeover at Alandur and take another train (from Little Mount station) to the airport due to operational difficulties faced in running a direct train from Vadapalani side to Aerodrome.