by: NavJeevan

Over 12,000 take part in Southern Railway’s ‘Swachhata Hi Seva’ Special Cleanliness Campaign

  • General Manager participates in the Swachhata Hi Seva event held at Chennai Egmore
  • Additional General Manager participates in the Swachhata Hi Seva event at Dr MGR Chennai Central
  • Over 12,000 volunteers, including Railway officials, School/College students, Scouts & Guides, NGOs, rail passengers and general public participate in Swachhata Hi Seva events organized at various stations across Southern Railway and offer Shramdaan
  • The ‘14-minute Miracle’ Vande Bharat Cleaning session carried out at Dr MGR Chennai Central, Chennai Egmore & Kasaragod

NE NEWS SERVICE
CHENNAI, OCT 1

Southern Railway observed ‘Swachhata Hi Seva’ on Sunday, the 1st of October 2023 in commemoration of Gandi Jayanthi. The massive cleanliness campaign focussing on the theme “Garbage-Free India’ was organized at 360 railway stations, 43 railway colonies, 47 maintenance depots and workshops, 30 Health Units and 30 running rooms covering over 1200 locations across the zone. Over  12,000 volunteers actively participated in the drive.

RN Singh, General Manager, Southern Railway launched the Swachhata Hi Seva Cleanliness drive at Chennai Egmore on Sunday and offered Shramdaan along with P Suresh, Principal Chief Mechanical Engineer, P Mahesh, Senior Dy. General Manager,  Challam, Chief Project Manager/Gati Sakti and Officers and Staff of Southern Railway.

Kaushal Kishore, Additional General Manager, Southern Railway participated in the Swachhata Hi Seva Cleanliness drive at Dr MGR Chennai Central along with B. Viswanath Eerya, Divisional Railway Manager, Chennai, other Officers and staff.  The ‘14-minute miracle’ Cleaning of Coimbatore – Dr MGR Vande Bharat Express (on arrival) was carried out at Dr MGR Chennai Central during the programme.

Principal Heads of Departments, Officers and Staff of Southern Railway also actively participated in the drive organized at various locations which saw the enthusiastic participation of students, Scouts & Guides, NGOs, Volunteers, rail passengers and general public.

The special cleanliness campaign was led by Divisional Railway Managers at all the six divisions of Chennai, Salem, Tiruchchirappalli, Madurai, Palakkad and Thiruvananthapuram and a host of events like Shramdaan, Cleanliness rally, Tree plantation drives, honouring Cleanliness workers ( Safai Karamcharis) were organized.

‘14-minute Miracle’ Vande Bharat Cleaning

As part of the Swachhata Hi Seva Cleaning Program on 1st October 2023, a novel scheme named ’14-minute miracle’ has been launched on pilot basis for three incoming rakes of Vande Bharat.

The 14 Minute Miracle Cleaning Scheme will save time for the passengers at the destination station for the return journey of the Vande Bharat train and it will ensure that the passengers are able to board a cleaner train in a shorter time.

Train No 20644 Coimbatore – Chennai Vande Bharat which arrived at Dr MGR Chennai Central at 11.50 hrs was cleaned at a record 14 minutes at Dr Chennai Central Railway Station, and the incoming Train No.20666 Tirunelveli – Chennai Egmore Vande Bharat which reached Chennai Egmore at 13.50 was also cleaned in a record 14 minutes as well as Train No.20634 Thiruvananthapuram – Kasaragod Vande Bharat Express which reached Kasaragod 13.20 hrs.

All the three Vande Bharat Express trains were cleaned quickly in 14 minutes time on arrival at their respective destination stations. These trials will demonstrate the scheme’s effectiveness in improving the overall quality of rail services and based on the feedback the scheme will be further improved. This program shares similarities with Japan’s Bullet Train cleanliness initiative.