Karnal station betters cleanliness rank

KARNAL: Improving its ranking Karnal railway station one of the oldest stations in the country built by the British in 1892 secured 186th place among 720 stations of the country in the cleanliness ranking under Swachh Rail Swachh Bharat 2019

Updated At : 01:22 PM Oct 04, 2019 IST

Karnal railway station.

Parveen Arora
Tribune News Service
Karnal, October 3

Improving its ranking, Karnal railway station, one of the oldest stations in the country built by the British in 1892, secured 186th place among 720 stations of the country in the cleanliness ranking under Swachh Rail, Swachh Bharat 2019.

Karnal station was at 241st rank during last year’s cleanliness ranking. However, its rank was 181 in 2017.

The Railway Ministry announced the cleanliness rankings conducted by the quality council of India yesterday based on parameters like cleanliness in parking, main entry area, main platform, waiting room, passenger feedback, geo-tagged 24x7 control room to monitor progress and others.

Karnal scored 781.16 marks out of a total of 1,000 comprising 33.33 per cent weightage of each component — process evaluation, direct observation and citizen feedback. It scored 234.42 marks in process evaluation, 235.80 in direct observation and 307.94 in citizen feedback.

A team of the quality council of India conducted the survey of the station recently. It reviewed the cleanliness at the station along with taking feedback from citizens on September 2 and 3.

Confirming the rank, Sanjay Saxena, deputy station superintendent, told The Tribune that Karnal railway station has improved its ranking in cleanliness. “Earlier, we were at 241st rank and now, it has improved to 186th,” he added.

For the next survey in 2020, the Karnal authorities have already chalked out a plan to overcome the flaws which the survey team observed and to focus on the fields where they received less marks.

“Our station is one of the oldest stations of the country and presently, it is the station of CM city. As per railways, it is in A-class category. Several more initiatives will be taken to improve the ranking in the next survey,” Saxena added.

He said that the work on the foot over-bridge connecting the area across the railway lines with the railway road is under way and soon, it would be completed.

With the improvement in ranking, the residents are also elated. “It is a good sign that Karnal railway station has been working on cleanliness but more work is needed. Focus should be laid on toilets,” said Munish Arya, a resident of the city.