Northern Indian Railways Use WhatsApp Groups to Track Cleanliness of Trains
Among the changes that railways are witnessing, the Northern Railways have decided to monitor cleanliness in trains using WhatsApp groups.
One of the many things that deter people from travelling in railways is the lack of cleanliness. We have all complained about the lack of maintenance in trains and now it seems railways is finally taking cognizance of the problem. Among the changes that railways are witnessing, the Northern Railways have decided to monitor cleanliness in trains using WhatsApp groups. They have created separate WhatsApp groups in which status report of cleanliness will be updated on daily basis.
Talking about the new step by the railways, Northern Railway General Manager Vishwesh Chaube said, "WhatsApp groups have been created for train and pantry cleanliness, bedrolls and functionality of air conditioners in trains. Photographs are being uploaded in these groups for monitoring by senior officials." Also to tackle problems of local trains getting stuck on waterlogged tracks during rains, the Central Railway has introduced waterproof locomotive engine.
The zone will also have an automatic coach washing plant at the Hazrat Nizamuddin railway station that can wash a 24-coach train in just eight minutes. He said the plant is cost around Rs 1.6 crore. The plant will also conserve water as it will use only 240 litres instead of 1,500 litres in manual washing. It will be cleaned using vacuum cleaners, scrubbers and jet cleaning machines. It can thus clean 250 coaches every day.
Under Project Utkrisht, eight trains having 16 rakes would be upgraded by the end of 2018-2019. Anti-graffiti exterior paints, state-of-the-art toilet fittings and odour control system, among others, will be among some of the other features. Also, in 2017-2018, 4415 bio-toilets were fitted in coaches. They are targetting to install CCTVs in 340 coaches for online monitoring cleanliness and safety.
(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Jun 11, 2018 12:34 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).