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New Delhi: Although the Railway Ministry has prescribed detailed norms for passenger amenities at stations, field zones have largely ignored them, creating widespread gaps that range from E. coli–contaminated drinking water in coolers to unhygienic washrooms, the CAG has said, PTI reported.

“Bacteriological analysis of drinking water was not carried out at 59 stations over six zones,” the CAG said in its report — Passenger amenities and sanitation at non-suburban railway stations in Indian Railways — tabled in Parliament on August 12.

“Water sample from water cooler was positive for E-coli at two stations (Coimbatore and Palakkad Junctions) in SR (Southern Railway), one station (Hyderabad) in SCR (South Central Railway), four stations (Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus, Bhiwandi Road, Kalyan and Lonavala) in CR (Central Railway) and one station (Madhupur) in ER (Eastern Railway),” it added after studying passenger services of 512 non-suburban grade stations across all zones.

“Test results of drinking water samples collected from taps in platforms at 49 stations in eight zones during 2022-23 and 56 stations in 9 zones during 2023-24 indicated presence of Total coliforms bacteria (including E-coli),” the report stated.

Beyond total coliforms, bacteriological parameters were found unsatisfactory at eight stations across four zones in 2022–23 and at 11 stations across five zones in 2023–24, the audit noted.

The CAG said the report covers instances from its 2019–20 to 2023–24 test audit, includes earlier unreported cases, and, where needed, draws on instances from after 2023–24 as well.

With 5,908 stations in the Non-Suburban Group and Indian Railways running over 7,424 non-suburban passenger trains daily to carry 292.4 crore passengers in 2023–24, the audit underscored the scale of the shortfall.

The inspection was undertaken to assess whether the Railway Board’s guidelines on passenger amenities and sanitation at stations delivered the intended benefits. Instead, the audit found that 458 of the 512 sampled stations—more than 89%—were deficient in Minimum Essential Amenities (MEA), either not provided or below prescribed norms.

“In April 2018, RB (Railway Board) issued comprehensive instructions prescribing Minimum Essential Amenities (MEA), Recommended Amenities (RA) and Desirable Amenities (DA) for stations categorised as NSG 1 to NSG 6. RB stipulated that MEAs were to be ensured at all stations by 31 August 2018,” the report said.

“RB’s instructions (April 2018) mandated that MEAs be provided first at all stations, irrespective of category. These include drinking water, waiting halls, seating arrangements, platform shelters, urinals, latrines, high-level platforms, fans, Foot Over Bridges (FOBs), dustbins, clocks and public address systems,” it added.

Even top-tier NSG-1 stations such as CSMT, Howrah, Sealdah, New Delhi and Mumbai Central showed deficits in seating, sanitary facilities (urinals and latrines), dustbins and electronic train indicator boards, among others.

“Audit scrutiny of NSG-1 category stations revealed deficiencies in core passenger amenities, including drinking water taps (12 stations), fans and water coolers (eight stations each) and signage (five stations),” the report said.

A review of the Passenger Amenities Management System showed large gaps against MEA benchmarks: a shortfall of latrines at 201 stations, urinals at 403 stations and water taps at 2,035 stations, besides other misses.

In its major recommendations, the CAG pressed the Railways to clamp down on lapses by enforcing mandated inspections of water supply systems and ensuring end-to-end testing of drinking water quality across every parameter laid down in the Uniform Drinking Water Quality Protocol.