Ludhiana: Railway planning to outsource cleanliness work

In a bid to ensure cleanliness at the Ludhiana railway station, the authorities are planning to outsource the cleaning work. The railways is facing the shortage of staff, particularly the Class IV employees, so maintaining cleanliness at the station remains a Herculean task for them. To deal with the staff scarcity and also to fix the liability and accountability, now railway authorities have decided to get the station cleaned through outsourcing module.

While talking to HT, Divisional Railway Manager (DRM), Ferozepur Division, Anuj Prakash said, “We want to get an integrated cleanliness system at Ludhiana so that everything gets done in a chain. Now we have four departments within sanitation wing and thus work goes on passing from one to the other and the responsibility can't be ascertained. To deal with this situation and to ensure proper hygiene and cleanliness, outsourcing is on the cards.”

As per the records, a total number of sanitation workers at Ludhiana railway station is merely 32, against the sanctioned posts of 110 at present. These sanctioned posts were revised two decades ago, but the number of passengers and trains has increased manifold.

A team comprising chief commercial manager (CCM) of Northern Railways, Archana Srivastva, and senior divisional commercial manager (DCM) Roshan Singh and others inspected the railway station on Thursday. The visit was directly linked to the initiation of outsourcing work for cleanliness.

The team visited the platform, foot overbridge, parking area, washrooms etc. Archana Srivastva pointed out lack of cleanliness in the washrooms and the dilapidated condition of walls in the waiting hall and other areas.

DRM Anuj Prakash said, “At this stage, we are looking into the modalities to outsource the cleanliness in an integrated manner. As after finalising it, we will call the contractors, thus this project may take some time. But by the time, local authorities were asked to do everything to keep the station clean in all aspects and to spread awareness among the masses.”