Fulfil expectations,PAC tells Central Rly

Nagpur: The Passenger Amenities Committee (PAC) of the ministry of railways on Tuesday expressed serious concern over the poor hygiene at Nagpur railway station and asked the Central Railway (CR) administration to improve the situation in 15 days and live up to the expectations of passengers. The 16-member PAC has been broken down into four subcommittees and one of them was in the city on Tuesday to inspect Nagpur station.But instead of the four, only two members, head Ashok Tripathi and member Mohammed Irfan Ahmed were in the city. While one of the other members fell ill, another did not make it to Nagpur from Pune. Brijbhushan Shukla, Zonal Railway Users Consultative Committee (ZRUCC) member from Nagpur, was also present during the inspection. The team is on tour of prominent stations in Maharashtra from April 18.
Though a press release issued by CR claimed that all was well, PAC, during its two-hour-long inspection picked many loopholes regarding hygiene and sanitation. It found that the base kitchen, which supplied food to passengers, was in a shambles. The preliminary survey report in March on cleanliness of A1 stations by railway ministry had put Nagpur at level 4.
PAC found that the toilets were leaking near the place where food is prepared. Floor was dirty and roti making machine and utensil washing equipment were out of order. Tripathi directed action against the base kitchen manager, but as he was retiring in a month, they decided to take a softer stance.
On platform numbers 4, 5 and 6, PAC noticed that there was no drinking water. DRM OP Singh explained that the water shortage was because of a leakage in a pipline. “We will repair the leaks in three hours,” he said.
The PAC also found that urinals on platform number 8 were unclean. The condition of the retiring rooms was also not satisfactory. There were many taps without caps and the PAC also rapped inspector of works (IOW) of Nagpur station Gopal Pathak, who has been posted here for many years.
Tripathi was anguished to see cob webs at the main entrance of the station. The health officials said that they had mandate to clean up to nine feet. To this, DRM said it will be removed in a couple of days.
Without divulging any details, Tripathi told TOI, “This was perhaps the first comprehensive inspection by any PAC. Both the DRMs were present. Besides, for first time GRP cooperated, which was not the case during inspection at other stations in the state.”
Tripathi added there are loopholes from security point too and the administration has been asked to take steps. He suggested having sprinklers at goods yard to avoid incidents of fire in coal-laden wagons. He also suggested cutting short the long queues at reservation counters.
The PAC will submit its report to Railway Board in a few days and is expected to take a review of steps taken in this regard after a month.