Shri Alok Kansal – General Manager of Western Railway (WR) conducted a surprise visit to Churchgate station on 16th August, 2020 and inspected various activities under the ongoing cleanliness drive at this station. It’s worth mentioning that to commemorate the 74th Independence Day of our nation, Indian Railways had launched a week long cleanliness drive, which started from 10th August and culminated on the 16th of August, 2020. In continuation to this nationwide decision, a special Cleanliness drive was launched over W. Rly, which was actively participated by the officers & staff of W.Rly.
According to a press release issued by Shri Sumit Thakur – Chief Public Relations Officer of Western Railway, Shri Alok Kansal strongly believes in the ideology of “Atmanirbar Bharat” and accordingly demonstrated a glaring example by taking charge of the mechanised Cleaning Machine and undertook the cleaning of concourse area at Churchgate. Cleaning was also undertaken at the exit gate premises of Churchgate station by GM Shri Kansal, along with DRM Shri GVL Satya Kumar & other officers.
Shri Kansal, thereafter, interacted with few commuters of essential categories, permitted to travel by local trains and enquired about the arrangements made by WR including social distancing, scanning procedures, provision of QR code etc for which he received positive feedback.
Highlights of the surprise visit to Churchgate station by GM:
- GM also inspected the sanitization done in Motormen and Guard cab on the arrival of every EMU local train at platform.
- A brief interaction was also done with Media persons wherein Shri Kansal apprised the media about the various steps & initiatives undertaken by W.Rly during this pandemic as well as various accomplishments by W.Rly by utilising this challenging situation of Crisis & turning into an Opportunity.
- He said that taking inspiration from Hon’ble Prime Minister’s unique slogan of Atmanirbar Bharat, Western Rly has ensured in-house preparation of large number of masks, sanitizers, PPE suits & touch free sanitizer machines.
- Speaking about the ongoing cleanliness drive, Shri Kansal informed that about 2.5 tonnes of plastic waste & 24 tonnes of wet garbage were removed from stations all over WR.
- He also apprised that multiple rounds of cleanliness drives were conducted in WR’s Mumbai suburban section & total three lakh cubic metre muck was removed during pre monsoon preparations and cleaning of all drains & culverts were also ensured.
- Due to this good work, punctuality of more than 99% in suburban section has been ensured by Western Rly.
- He also stressed upon that W.Rly is taking utmost care for the hygiene, cleanliness & sanitisation of railway stations, tracks and station premises as well as permitting only 700 commuters in a local train to maintain social distancing.
- He emphasized the need of self cleanliness by all, including passengers permitted in railway premises and appealed them to use suitable masks & sanitizers for proper protection during the travel, so that proper precautions may be ensured to fight with pandemic.
- He stated that for the benefit of freight customers, Western Rly has recently introduced various freight incentive schemes, which will play a vital role in boosting the freight business over Western Rly.
About the ongoing cleanliness drive:
- Shri Thakur stated that this drive primarily focused on the cleanliness of Station offices, colonies, work sites, water vending points, toilets, drains, edge of stations and other areas near railway premises with a special focus of railway tracks.
- The cleanliness campaign was conducted with full enthusiasm across six divisions of W. Rly covering 72 railway stations, 21 depots (including Coaching depots / Electric sheds / Diesel Shed / Workshops, 12 trains (including EMU & Mail/Express) and various major railway colonies over WR.
- Track side cleaning was done at 30 various locations over WR which included De-weeding, Debris removal, Roof cleaning, Drain cleaning and site cleaning.
- Unwanted greenery was removed in areas near and around railway resident’s colonies.
- Fumigation and sanitization was done in addition to Indoor residual spray and Anti larval spray as precautionary measures at various railway colonies.
- Shramdaan was also performed by Railway officials at various locations over WR.
Several awareness messages urging the passengers and general public to keep the trains/stations and tracks clean were relayed through the PA system at stations for general public to cooperate with the Railways. To sum up, various digital & other activities were held in all the 6 divisions of Western Rly during this special drive with proper social protocol considering the present scenario of pandemic.
Source: Western Railway-Press Release
