Railways spends Rs 12000 crore a year to clean ‘gutkha’ stains, comes up with new plan

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New Delhi: Despite the Swachha Bharat initiative which has seen been widely publicized, it has been tough to bring about behavioural changes in some people who are used to spit in public. They probably do not realize the magnitude of damage they do. Here’s an estimate to wonder – the Indian Railways spends a whopping amount of about Rs 12000 crore every year just to clean the ‘gutkha’ stains.

Despite the COVID-19 guidelines which hugely stresses maintaining personal hygiene and cleanliness of the surrounding, the habitual offenders have not mended their ways and the problem is still festering.

However, the railways in a bid to deal with it has come up with a new solution. The plan is to install spitter kiosks at the station premises which can be used by the general public.

The railways is going to install such kiosks in 42 stations across the country. These kiosks will be stocked with spittoon pouches that would cost from Rs 5 to 10.

The railways hopes people would make use of the spittoons that would help them cut down on their stain-cleaning expenses.