WHY ARE Mumbai's railway stations always dirty and their toilets stinking despite regular cleanliness campaigns? It's because the railways don't have a policy on waste management or even a mechanism to realistically assess the quantum of garbage they generate.

Deploring the lack of a garbage disposal policy, the Comptroller and Auditor General report on ‘Cleanliness and Sanitation on Indian Railways' has delivered a rap on the knuckles to the railways.

The report is based on a survey across 329 stations across the country, including key ones in Mumbai, like Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus, Mumbai Central, Dadar, Kalyan and Dombivli.

Dilapidated drains, faulty design, incorrect gradients that lead to water stagnating, burning of garbage on platforms and lack of a waste disposal policy are some of the key findings of the report.

Mumbai stations, it said, suffer from problems like drains blocked by with weeds, stagnating refuse and silt, poor drain design with no links to main drains and poor maintenance.

Public toilets at stations were in a deplorable condition with water-logging, leaking roofs, broken taps and tiles, broken pipes and stagnating waste. Eighty-five per cent of passengers surveyed found the toilets virtually unusable.

Central Railway Divisional Manager J.N. Lal, though, claimed they were following an environment-friendly garbage policy. "We collect garbage from dustbins, put them in polythene bags, seal their mouths and dump them at a selected spot at each station. We also liaise with the civic body regularly over waste management." His Western Railway counterpart Satya Prakash admitted that cleaning stations was a mammoth task. He said they had identified the problem areas and were working on solutions. "Over 30 lakh passengers use the railways every day, so cleaning up stations is a huge task," Prakash said.

The report recommended that the railways assess the financial requirement to, literally, clean up their act and realistically assess the garbage they generate, apart from ensuring proper coordination between departments and enhance user awareness.

cleanup@hindustantimes.com Talk Fed up of filthy to us railway stations? E-mail us at cleanup@hindustantimes.com you can also SMS us at HTtalk followed by your message and send it to Problems ¦ Dilapidated, badly designed drains. ¦ No links to main drains. ¦ Water stagnation. ¦ Burning of garbage on platforms.

Solutions ¦ Railways must assess financial requirement to clean up stations. ¦ Realistically assess the garbage they generate. ¦ Ensure proper coordination between departments. ¦ Enhance user awareness.

 

URL: http://epaper.hindustantimes.com/artMailDisp.aspx?article=26_03_2008_002_002&typ=1&pub=264