Union Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw will launch the ’14 minutes of miracle’ concept for speedy cleaning of trains from tomorrow (October 1), which will begin with 29 Vande Bharat trains at the respective destination stations across the country. 

The launch will take place at the Delhi Cantt. Railway Station. Vaishnaw told reporters that the Vande Bharat trains will be cleaned within 14 minutes under the initiative to improve their punctuality and turnaround time.

“It is a unique concept and happening for the first time in the Indian railways,” the minister said. The initiative is based on the concept of ‘7 minutes of miracle’ at various stations such as Osaka, Tokyo, etc. in Japan where bullet trains are cleaned and made ready for another journey within seven minutes.

The service has been made possible by enhancing the cleaning persons’ efficiency, skills and working attitude without increasing the number of front-line workforce already engaged in this activity, the minister said. Besides Delhi Cantt, some of the other railway stations where it will be started are Varanasi, Gandhinagar, Mysore and Nagpur, depending on the respective arrival timings of the Vande Bharat trains.

Before launching this concept, the Railways carried out a couple of dry-runs where the attendants cleaned the train first in around 28 minutes and then improved it to 18 minutes. “Now it will take only 14 minutes without involving any new technology,” the minister said. “Starting from Vande Bharat, we will apply the same concept in other trains slowly and gradually which will have a huge impact on improving their punctuality,” the minister said.

The Indian Railway launched a fortnight-long cleanliness drive – Swachhata-Hi-Seva campaign – in September in which the chairman and CEO of the Railway Board administered the Swachhata pledge to railway officials via video conferencing from the Rail Bhawan in New Delhi. According to the railways, during the first 15 days of the SHS campaign, more than 2.19 lakh people participated in around 2050 activities involving 685,883 man-hours.

Railways to introduce ramps in trains

Indian Railways is going to introduce ramps in trains for the convenience of wheelchair users and senior citizens, Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw said on Saturday. Releasing the pictures of the newly designed ramps, Vaishnaw told reporters that these have been used at the Chennai railway station and found to be helpful for passengers who require a ramp.

(With inputs from PTI)

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