Mechanised Cleaning Techniques

 Indian Railways has introduced mechanized cleaning at major stations to maintain proper hygiene, cleanliness and sanitation within station premises. The mechanized cleaning is carried out using high pressure water jets, mechanised floor scrubber, walk behind automatic scrubber dryer, battery operated ride on scrubber, vacuum cleaner, flippers, wet and dry vacuum cleaner etc., along with the requisite material and manpower.

Efforts are also made for mechanized cleaning on non-conducive surface. Ride on road sweeper machines, high pressure jet machines etc are being used in some Railways for slight non-conducive surfaces. Furthermore cleaning of non-conducive surfaces are generally done

using tools like brooms, hand scrubbers, wet mops, wipers etc with recommended chemicals/cleaning agents.

1. Indian Railways’ Vision 2020 targets prioritisation of sanitation and waste management.

 

Following have been envisaged as thrust area for Indian Railways:

 

• Study of each station for its peculiarities to achieve near-zero-waste by adopting the principle of reduction, recycle and re-use.
• Infrastructure and amenities like water supply, drainage, sewerage, washable aprons, properly designed platforms and ‘pay and use toilets’ maintained by competent agencies along with user awareness campaigns.
• Coordination with city authorities.

 

• Enhancement of train cleanliness by retrofitting all coaches with discharge free green toilets.

 

• Mechanized cleaning at maintenance terminals.

 

• Onboard housekeeping and en-route mechanized cleaning at Clean Train Stations.

 

• Maximum recycling of water.

 

• Professional assistance for pest and rodent control.

 

2. Scrubbers as mentioned in Standard Bid Document (SBD) for mechanised cleaning includes scrubber machines having twin movement i.e. rotary action of scrubber and translational movement and the same are being used in mechanised cleaning system over Indian Railways.

This information was given by the Minister of Railways, Communications and Electronic & Information Technology, Shri Ashwini Vaishnaw in a written reply to a question in Rajya Sabha today.

****

RKJ/M