The Hindu Business Line : Railways invites bids for mechanised cleaning by 2008

Travelling in most of the trains could become a cleaner experience with the Railways inviting bids for cleaning trains based on a standardised cleaning process developed for trains by Eureka Forbes. The Railways has set a target of ensuring mechanised cleaning of every long distance train at least once every day by 2008.

The standardised format was specially developed for cleaning trains within limited time and includes mechanised cleaning process, defined equipment.

Cleaning up process

"The process includes spraying mosquito repellent and cleaning window pane (of air conditioned coaches), wash basins and toilet, vacuum-drying the floor and emptying dustbins," said sources. "Our aim is to ensure that all long distance trains which involve a considerable journey during the day are cleaned up at least once by 2008," they added. For this, the Railways has selected 25 stations through which a maximum number of long distance trains pass during the daytime.

Moreover, based on a plotting exercise for about 1,400 trains, their journey time and stoppages, the Railways is also working out another cleaning mechanism for 240-250 trains that run for 18-48 hours but do not pass through one of the above stations during their journey.

Competitive bidding

The Railways has bid out the mechanised cleaning operation process at eight stations that include Ratlam, Asansol, Bhusawal, Vishakapatnam, New Jalpaiguri, Guwahati, Jhansi and Ahmedabad. At present, based on the competitive bidding, the cost for cleaning each coach ranges between Rs 55-70. Each train has about 18-24 coaches. The bids are invited based on the number of trains that need to be cleaned up during a day and number of coaches in the trains in the station. "We are giving out the stations to players on a competitive bidding basis. The bidders, who are required to have experience in hygiene and housekeeping, are awarded bids for three or five years," said the official.

For another 17 stations, the Railways is in various stages of the bidding process. "For some the bids would soon be invited... We are trying to ensure that these stations are given out to operators by this fiscal end," the sources said.

The 17 stations include Mugal Sarai, New Delhi, Gorakhpur, Jaipur, Erode, Vijayawada, Rourkela, Bilaspur, Hubli, Itarsi, Sholapur, Barauni, Bhubaneswar, Moradabad, Lucknow, Chhapra and Kharagpur.