After launching its popular Utsonmobile service last month, Indian Railways Ministry is launching a few more services to improve the customer experience. If you travel by trains often, then this service is going to delight you to no extent!
Adding to ‘Swacch Bharat Abhiyan’, Suresh Prabhu, Railway Minister, has launched a new service, dubbed ‘Clean My Coach’ which does exactly what it says. An online service for railway passengers in India, it allows them to get their coaches or compartments cleaned by using a dedicated app for the service.
Passengers can also order the service through the website or by requesting it through an SMS. ‘Clean My Coach’ also has a dedicated mobile app, which customers can use.The train cleaners will clean your compartment area on demand, through the service.
The service has been launched on 1297 trains in New Delhi/Northern Railway, Mumbai Central/Western Railway and Lucknow Jn/North Eastern Railway only for now.
How can I request for the service?
Firstly, there is On board housekeeping service (OBHS) present at all times in the trains to clean the compartments twice every day. The new service will allow them to clean the toilets and coaches on demand, apart from the cleaning done twice everyday, on demand for a passenger.
If you have to order the service in the train, you can do that through their new app, website and SMS service. On the mobile application, you just have to enter your 10-digit PNR number along with your phone number and the complaint will be lodged on OBHS’ server. The OBHS staff will then contact the passengers and clean the area requested.
Similarly, through the website the passengers can punch in their PNR number and mobile phone number to lodge the complaint.
Through SMS service, the passengers can send their request by entering ‘CLEAN <space> <10-digit PNR number> to 58888. Their is a software named OBSERVE(On Board Services) which will forward the request to the OBHS staff travelling in the same train.
This service seems to be already a big hit – as per the website, over 19220 service requests were made in a day. As more and more people will know, this number is only going to increase!
What if I don’t like the service I got?
It is quite possible that the customer requested for the service, but the delivery may have not been upto the mark. In that case, the customer may not close the request upon intimation.
The passenger will get a code upon acknowledgement of the request, which he/she should disclose to the OBHS is they found the service to be satisfactory, and the request is closed. In case the service was not good, they may choose to keep the code to themselves and not disclose it to the OBHS, in which case the Railway Administration will ensure service is upto the mark by following up with the passenger.
The website is quite informative, with latest requests displayed up front, along with total requests received for the day. That is some amazing transparency for Indian Railways!
Next time you’re on a long journey train and you want to use the toilet but it is not clean, you know who to call for help. Let’s hope we Indians also respect the service as much as the Government is requesting our appreciation.
[…] to ‘Swacch Bharat Abhiyan’, Suresh Prabhu, Railway Minister, has launched a new service, dubbed ‘Clean My Coach’ which does exactly what it says. An online service for railway passengers in India, it allows them […]