A cleaner on a train at NJP. A Telegraph picture

Siliguri, Dec. 1: New Jalpaiguri today became the country?s third ?clean train station?, where compartments of through trains were be cleaned by uniformed and trained personnel with modern gadgets while the trains stop at the platform.

Indian Railways has partly outsourced this new passenger amenity to Eureka Forbes, known for its cleaning and water purifying gadgets. The first clean train station to come up under the programme was at Western Railway?s Ratlam two years ago, while the second one is Asansol.

During an average halt of 20 minutes at the station, groups of cleaners or workstations, each comprising three men, will clean the main aisle, the door areas and the toilets of the trains. Each workstation will handle two coaches. ?A mail or express train has 18 coaches and we have deployed nine groups,? said Sanjay Jalla, the senior manager of Eureka Forbes.

Northeast Frontier Railway (NFR) has signed a five-year contract, worth Rs 3.42 crore, with the company.

?High-pressure jets will be used for cleaning the toilets, while a wet vacuum cleaner will do the floors,? Jalla said. ?Room-fresheners and mosquito-repellents will be sprayed in coaches and windows of AC coaches wiped. Waste under washbasins will be disposed of in garbage bins.?

?There will be a passenger feedback system, by which the work can be improved upon,? he added. The programme also includes an awareness drive among passengers. ?Cleanliness will have to be promoted among commuters,? said S.K. Suri, additional general manager, NFR. Asked if the railway?s safai karmacharis will become jobless, an official said the new scheme would not interfere with their work.