Lahore Railway Station or garbage dump

[LahoreEstate]

Friday, January 30, 2009
By Our Correspondent

LAHORE

POOR sanitary conditions mar the Lahore Railway station as the already grim state of the historic facility tarnishes due to ill maintenance.

Heaps of garbage and stagnant water at the railway lines have become a permanent feature there, which catches the attention of everyone except those responsible to clean it.

The reason behind this is the fact that the total strength of sanitary workers, at present, for the massive railway station is only 66 for three shifts. The workers are all employed as daily wagers and due to meagre pays do not take interest in their jobs.

Each shift has a 22-member staff to look after the grand British era architecture, which is evidently impossible to achieve through such insufficient manpower.

In the past, the sanitary works of the railway station were outsourced to private contractors which improved the state of affairs to a degree.

The Pakistan Railways re acquired the responsibility in 2001 in an effort to cut down on spending. The interesting fact is that in 1992 the total workers employed were 140.

Considering the population increase over the past 16 years and the increase in railway traffic the number of workers should have been doubled instead it had been cut to less than half.

The railway station has 11 platforms (1 to 9, with 2 extra platforms, 3A and 6A).

The sanitation department is responsible for the cleanliness and hygiene of all the platforms, the area surrounding the station, the area from Domoria Pul at one end and the Garhi Shahu Bridge at the other.

There is not even a single trash bin in the railway station, which has given birth to stinking piles and heaps of trash.

The conservation and maintenance of this first purpose-built British imperial era building (in 1859) is suffering at the hands of negligence by the authorities.

The British ornamented the floors of platform 2 to platform 4 with valuable red stone, which had been stained and smeared because of casualness adopted by the department concerned. The doors which should be polished to retain the significant structure in its true form had been painted over, disfiguring their original look.

With over 25,000 travellers using this station every day, all the trash, wear and tear associated with such high flux of people, if the situation is not taken into consideration, the working staff is not enhanced and equipped and the department does not formulate an effective plan for the preservation and maintenance of this 150-year old Railway Station, it is feared that it would loose its glory beyond repair.

Railways Sanitary Inspector Mian Imran told The News that the deplorable sanitary state of the Lahore Railway Station was due to insufficient staff and scarce resources.

He said that 22 workers per shift were equivalent to having one man to maintain a football field when there were 10 matches being played there everyday. Mian Imran explained that there were no trash bins at the railway Station because they were a potential security threat as they could house explosives.

http://www.thenews.com.pk/daily_detail.asp?id=159787