Indian Railways is undergoing a massive transformation for the better. Amongst the top most priorities of the transporter is cleanliness. To hold everyone accountable, Railways has taken the next step and released a report on Station Cleanliness conducted by Quality Council of India (QCI).  In the report, North Western Railway's Jodhpur and Marwar stations have been ranked cleanest among 407 stations.

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This is the third cleanliness survey ranking and covers a total of 407 stations which include 75 stations in A1 and 332 stations in A category.

The report was released by Railway Minister Piyush Goyal today. This is third party audit-cum-survey conducted by Railways to increase the level of cleanliness by identifying unclean spots/gaps and to improve cleanliness standards and also to propel healthy competition among Indian Railways stations.

"During the last 4 years, the sanitation coverage in the country which was 38% in 2014 has gone up to 83% in 2018. Nearly, 7 crore toilets have been constructed in the last 4 years, which is a major accomplishment," said Goyal commenting on the report.

Goyal also said that the cleanliness rankings of the stations will not only be a reward for the stations that have performed well but will also be an impetus for further improvement for the ones that didn't make it to the top rankings. He appreciated Jodhpur (first) and Jaipur (second) for making it to the top slot among A-1 category stations.

"Tirupati, which is another important religious station, in South Central Railway, has been placed at the third position in the ranking.  In A category stations, Marwar has been placed at the first position, Phulera station has been placed at the second position.  Both the stations are again from North Western Railway in Rajasthan. Third place goes to Warangal station of South Central Railway in Telangana," he added.

Key highlights of the report:* As compared to 2017, there is 9% improvement in top 100 stations, 14% in the next 100 stations, 20% in 201-300 stations and 31% in 301-407 stations.
  
* 10 Zones have shown 10-20% improvement, 4 zones have improved more than 20% and two zones have shown less than 10% improvement in cleanliness as compared to 2017.

* For the survey and audit, QCI has trained and deployed 160 assessors to ensure quality and consistency. QCI has deployed 2 persons on each station for 2 days and the Central team consisted of 3 persons for 25 days. Thus a total of 1628 maydays were deployed.

* The parameters adopted for conducting the survey were: Evaluation of Process of cleanliness in Parking, main entry area, main platform, waiting room, (33.33%) direct observation by QCI assessors of cleanliness in these areas (33.33%) and passenger feedback (33.33%). A 24x7 control room was set up and images were geo-tagged to monitor progress.

*  A1 category stations (out of 75)    
1st: Jodhpur/North-Western Railway   
2nd: Jaipur/North-Western Railway 
3rd: Tirupati/South-Central Railway
 
* A category stations (out of a total of 332)
1st: Marwar/North Western Railway
2nd: Phulera/North -Western Railway
3rd: Warangal/South-Central Railway

* Zonal Railway rankings are:
1st: North Western Railway
2nd: South Central Railway    
3rd: East Coast Railway

Among 75 A1 category stations, Gwalior (73rd), Kalyan (74) and Mathura Junction (75) have been placed at the bottom of the list.  

Sasaram Junction (330th), Phaphund (331st) and Shahganj (332nd)have been ranked dirtiest among 332 A category stations.