In a bid to make travel experience in the Delhi Metro smoother and safer, the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) is deploying marshalls outside major Metro stations around the capital. The DMRC is also undertaking several cleanliness drives.
The DMRC has identified some 20 Metro stations across Delhi where two marshalls will be deployed at the entry and exit gates at all times to curb various civic issues like unauthorised vendors and illegal hawkers.
The initiative will also curb the menace of beggars and check on illegal parkings and clustering of e-rickshaws and cycle rickshaws. The move will ensure safety even outside these stations.
Among the identified Metro stations that will see the deployment of marshalls are Laxmi Nagar, Karol Bagh, Govindpuri, Malviya Nagar, New Delhi, Anand Vihar, Dwarka Mor, Saket, AIIMS, Rithala and many others. A spokesperson of the DMRC told The Sunday Guardian, “We had been receiving several complaints about clogging of entry and exit points at several Metro stations after which we decided to deploy these marshalls. We will have a total of 80 marshalls that will work in shifts at these Metro stations and ensure that no illegal hawking, or begging or parking takes place near these Metro stations.”
“Earlier, on receiving complaints, the station controller used to send people to clear these entry-exit points, but once they were gone, the situation became like before. Now, with permanent deployment, we hope that the situation would improve,” the spokesperson added.
Taking cue from the Swachh Bharat Abhiyaan, the DMRC is going to start a cleanliness drive across most of its network. The drive would include cleaning Metro trains all through the day at the terminating stations. For this, the Metro has recruited specially trained housekeeping staff of four to six people who would complete cleaning the entire train within three to four minutes of the extra time that the train has at all terminating stations. “The staff would be specially trained to clean trains within a stipulated time. This initiative has been undertaken to ensure that cleanliness in the trains is maintained at all times. This will be taken care of from now on,” the DMRC spokesperson said.