Visakhapatnam railway station cleanest, Bihar's Darbhanga dirtiest: survey

Visakhapatnam: The Visakhapatnam railway station is the cleanest, followed by Secunderabad, among the 75 most busy stations in the country.

As per a survey, the report of which was released by Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu here on Wednesday, the Jammu railway station occupied the third spot, while the New Delhi station was ranked at 39 among the most busy stations.

The survey was carried out by the Quality Council of India.

The Darbhanga railway station in Bihar was the dirtiest among the most busy stations.

Clean toilets at platforms, clean tracks and dustbins at stations were some of the criteria for judging railway stations for cleanliness.

This was the third survey on cleanliness done by the railways to keep a tab on rail premises as part of its 'Swachh Rail' campaign.

"We want all stations to be clean. There are many stations which have improved their cleanliness ranking from last time," Prabhu said after releasing the survey report.

The Anand Vihar railway station was ranked at the 5th position, while Nizamuddin and Old Delhi stations were placed at 23th and 24th position.

The railway station in Varanasi, the Lok Sabha constituency of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, was ranked at 14th position.

The survey was carried out for total 407 stations, out of which 75 are in the A-1 category or most busy stations and 332 are in the A category.

The Beas railway station was the cleanest, followed by Khammam, in the A category. Ahmedanagar station was ranked at 3rd position.

While the Darbhanga railway station was at the 75th position in the A-1 category, Jogbani was the dirtiest in the A category.

The railways has about 8,000 stations which are classified into seven categories -- A1, A, B, C, D, E and F based on their annual passenger revenue.

The stations which contribute more than Rs 50 crore a year in passenger revenue are considered to be A-1 stations.

The A category stations contribute between Rs 6 crore and Rs 50 crore as annual passenger revenue.

All suburban stations are in C category, while all halts are in F category.

The railways will now carry out a survey of 200 trains on cleanliness.