Dharwad: From drab to beautiful, a green station's story

Hubballi: Just a few months ago it was just another village railway station. Tucked away in the tiny hamlet of Mugad,12 kms from the district headquarters of Dharwad, it was remote and drab like many other  stations in the rural parts of the country. 

But then its staff took over and transformed it into a “green station,” creating a beautiful garden on both sides of it and painting 10 km of the tracks red and white as part of a cleanliness drive. 

The rose and kakada flowers in and around the station and its changed environment have now become a centre of attraction and drawn appreciation not only from the people,  but also  Union Railway Minister, Piyush Goyal, who  tweeted recently that Karnataka had set a benchmark for other stations to follow.

“Small railway stations in villages are usually neglected with priority being given to the development of stations only in the big cities. So we decided to take it on ourselves to convert the Mugad station  into a model. Appreciation from the Union railway minister has given us a shot in the arm to carry on with our work on improving it,” says senior section engineer, Shafi Khazi. 

The staff decided to first tackle the problem of people littering the station with plastics, bottles and other rubbish and came up with the idea of creating the ambience of a picnic spot around it to encourage them to keep it clean. The many flowers and trees around the station also now serve to protect the staff from the sweltering heat while working on the tracks, making it a win-win situation for all.