The Indian Railways during the country-wide Swachhata Hi Seva campaign undertook a major initiative called “14 Minutes Miracle”. Launched at 29 stations across IR the aim of this campaign was to clean the entire Vande Bharat Express train — India’s premium train – at their destination stations within a record 14 minutes.

The scheme was formally launched by Ashwini Vaishnaw, Minister of Railways, at the Delhi Cantt. Railway Station. While at present it takes 45 minutes to clean Vande Bharat train, this campaign achieved substantial reduction by ensuring that there is no duplication of effort. The 14 Minutes Miracle which starts after deboarding of the passengers at the terminal station has been inspired by the world famous Shinkansen method which is used in Japan for cleaning of high-speed passenger trains.

South Central Railway

SCR undertook this exercise on Train No. 20834 Visakhapatnam-Secunderabad Vande Bharat Express at Secunderabad Railway station. This train has 16 coaches and to ensure meticulous cleaning of each of them, 16 batches of cleaning staff were assigned. Each batch had three staff members who were assigned specific tasks.

Named as Swachh Vande Veers, these staff, like a well-oiled machine within a tight timeframe of 14 minutes, cleaned the entire train with perfect coordination, precision and efficiency.

Arun Kumar Jain, General Manager, SCR who was present on the occasion informed that the 14 minutes miracle challenge is not a one-time exercise and will be carried out regularly from here on in all Vande Bharat trains.

Northeast Frontier Railway

At Northeast Frontier Railway zone cleaning of New Jalpaiguri-Guwahati Vande Bharat Express and Howrah-New Jalpaiguri Vande Bharat Express trains was carried out under this initiative at Guwahati and Howrah stations.

The exercise was based on the flow chart for smooth cleaning operation which involved 24 cleaning staff. They gathered at designated locations in 8 columns with three personnel in each column based on their assigned coach position.

The entire cleaning was done manually.

Southern Railway

Vande Veers in Southern Railway zone performed this exercise on Train No. 20634, the Thiruvananthapuram Central-Kasaragod Vande Bharat at Kasaragod.

Likewise agile conservancy staff quickly cleaned up Train No.20666 Tirunelveli-Chennai Egmore Vande Bharat at Chennai Egmore as a part of the Swachhata Hi Seva campaign.