Railways and Cleanliness

Last week myself and one of my friend had a discussion on how the Indian Railways have changed in the last few years and how the media has been attributing the success to the present Railway minister. While we were discussing we also were thinking how the railways have been changing in the passenger facilities such as online reservation & e-Ticketing (similar to the airlines) and keeping itself with changing times. While the changes are welcome, this has to be kept in other areas in the railways such as passenger amenities in stations, waiting halls, railway tracks. The passenger amenities has been relatively poor. Even stations such as Bangalore(The city is one of the important city in India) doesn’t have good amenities.
If it rains for just 30 min the station comes to standstill. There is no proper waiting rooms or areas for waiting for the passenger. They fall over each other to avoid getting drenched in rain. The disabled really can’t think of using these facilities. Waiting halls as such are relatively small when compared to the number of people using the stations. The railway tracks in the stations show how we Indians don’t care about the environment. The govt. is insensitive to the people needs!!. I say this because they put one small board in the railways compartment toilets “Please don’t use the toilets in the station” and think that the responsibility of keeping the station clean has now moved to the Citizens.

Now with the responsibility shifted to the hugely varied population, they are really unable to keep it like how the govt./environmentalist/sensible person wants them to keep. Probably Indian Railways is the only railways in the world where the human excreta is let out in the open. This has to be taken seriously by the Railway minister and a system to be brought out to solve it. While the Railways can proud of the recent achievements they need to solve this huge problem with a change in the mindset. They can come out with simple changes in the railway compartment toilets by connecting with a small sewage tanks at the bottom and this can be cleared at the major junctions. Normally around every ~200KM we have junctions and trains stops here for 10 mins. During this time clean water is filled in the top tank for people to use. Similarly this new sewage tank can be cleaned at the same time by having some dedicated sewage systems built, with the profits being generated. This will show Indians to the world in good light. Will the Railways and the Railway minister consider this?