Central Railway forms squads to clean tracks

Mumbai: In a bid to clean railway stations, the Central Railway (CR) of Mumbai division has formed a special ‘mobile gang’ of conservancy personnel to clean railway stations and their premises.

A squad of commercial department officials and Railway Protection Force (RPF) staff has been formed to appeal to residents to not dump garbage on the tracks as it creates hurdles in the operation of trains during the monsoon.

The CR has been running a special muck train called ‘Swachata Rath’ to collect garbage. As of now, the CR has dumped 82,000 cubic tonne muck.

A senior officer of CR said that they have conducted a massive cleanliness drive at Ambernath, Badlapur, Ulhasnagar, Cotton Green and Kurla. Besides, a squad is also doing a door-to-door campaign at the colonies in Sandhurst Road and Masjid Bunder.

They are appraising the problems due to the garbage on the tracks to the family members living close by.

“The members of the squad have visited two BMC schools in Sandhurst Road and Masjid Bunder areas. They have counselled the students about cleanliness and its importance. We have asked students that they should inform their parents not to dump garbage on railway tracks,” said an official.      

He added, “We are conducting daily safai samvads with a group of station in-charges to motivate them to maintain cleanliness of toilets and station premises. All toilets at all suburban stations are being monitored daily to ensure that they are functional and all the fittings are in place.”

Sunil Udasi, Chief PRO of CR, said, “It has been decided to remove garbage lying along the tracks during mega blocks on Harbour line. The MCGM has promised to cooperate in this effort.”