Big move! Western Railways turns free loos to paid, but only if you 'please'

In a first of its kind move, Western Railway (WR) has introduced the concept of ‘pay as you please’ for the urinals on its suburban stations. People using the free urinals at toilets can pay if they feel that they’ve been maintained properly. It is a known fact that maintenance standard of toilets at railway stations are very poor. Recently, the Indian Railways also went for ratings of its toilets across the country. The plan has been introduced on Friday last week and is operational at Andheri, Jogeshwari, Goregaon, Malad, Mira Road, Dahisar, Bhayandar, Naigaon, Kandivali and Borivali railway stations. The WR authorities intend to extend this at each toilet block per station on the suburban system.

“We have identified one toilet block at every station where urinal is free. People can pay whatever amount if they find the toilets well maintained. The pay-and-use toilets shall continue to operate,” said Mukul Jain, Divisional Railway Manager (Mumbai), Western Railway. The reason for introducing pay as you please on its free urinals is to make the contractors keep the urinals clean. Sources said that toilets at railway stations are stinky, there is little ventilation, stains on walls and badly maintained. A box for dropping money will be placed outside the urinals and the money will be collected by the contractor.

“The contractors tend to maintain only the pay-and-use toilet blocks. Every station has the facility of free urinals that remain dirty; and so, if people pay by their own will, then at least the contractors will have an incentive to clean it too,” said a WR official.

The Western Railway started charging Re 1 for urinals and Rs 2 for washroom six months back. The Central Railway on the other hand has decided to stop charging Re 1 for urinals of the newly constructed toilets. In 2017, the Rail ministry had also come out with swachhta report of railway stations.

By Shashank Rao

(Source: DNA)