Jodhpur cleanest station, Varanasi slips in ranking (Lead)

New Delhi : Jodhpur and Marwar in Rajasthan were declared the cleanest railway stations, while Varanasi, the prime minister's Lok Sabha constituency, slipped to the 69th position in the third cleanliness survey released on Monday.

Releasing the survey report, Railway Minister Piyush Goyal said: "Jodhpur has emerged as the cleanest station in A1 station category. Last year, Vishakaptnam was at the first spot," he said.

He said Rajasthan capital Jaipur is at number two and Tirupati in Andhra Pradesh at number three.

In the last survey, Jodhpur was at the 17th spot, while Jaipur and Tirupati were at the 18th and 19th spot respectively.

The railway station in Varanasi, which was ranked at 14th position in 2017, slipped to 69th spot this year, among the 75 busiest stations in the country.

Mathura railway station was declared the dirtiest station in the A1 station category.

Darbhanga, which was declared as one of the most dirtiest stations in 2017, this year was placed at 52nd place.

In the A1 category stations, Anand Vihar railway station in Delhi retained its spot of the 5th position, while Nizamuddin and Old Delhi stations slipped to 54th and 60th positions. Last year, Old Delhi and Hazrat Nizamuddin were positioned at 23rd and 24th place.

Clean toilets at platforms, clean tracks and dustbins at stations were some of the criteria for judging railway stations for cleanliness.

The railways had conducted a third-party survey for assessment of cleanliness. The survey was conducted by the Quality Council of India (QCI) covering 407 major railway stations -- 75 in A1 category and 332 in A category stations. The first survey was conducted by the IRCTC in 2016, the second by QCI.

The Minister also said that in A category stations, Marwar in Rajasthan topped the list, followed by Phulera in Rajasthan at number two, and Warangal in Telangana at number three.

Marwar was at the 168th spot in the 2017 cleanest station list, while Phulera was at 219th place and Warangal at the eighth place in 2017.

The list declared Shahganj in Uttar Pradesh as the dirtiest railway station in A category stations.

Goyal also said that the North Western Railway (NWR) topped the list in the cleanest zone category.

"NWR was at the eighth spot last year. This year it topped the list, that shows how the team has worked tremendously in last one year," Goyal said.

The South Central Railway (SCR) was declared the second cleanest zone. The SCR was at the fourth spot last year.

The East Coast Railway (ECR) was placed at the third spot in the cleanest zones.