Another feather in Vizag’s cap

Visakhapatnam: Visakhapatnam Railway Station added another feather into its cap. After getting number one railway station award in cleanliness among A1 category stations in Indian Railways declared by Ministry of Railways, now it is adjudged as the best tourist friendly station in the state by Andhra Pradesh Tourism Authority (APTA).

Communicating the greetings, Manager (HR) of APTA PV Deepak said that the State Tourism Annual Excellence Awards-2017 will be held on the World Tourism Day on September 27 at the RK Beach here during which the award will be presented.

To mark ‘The World Tourism Day’, which will celebrated across the world on September 27 every year to create global awareness about the importance of tourism and its impact on society in various fields, the excellence awards will be presented to various institutes in recognition of their performance in respective fields to encourage tourism promotion.

The date has special significance as it was chosen to mark the anniversary of the day when the statues of UNWTO (United Nations World Tourism Organisation) were adopted in 1970. This was considered a major milestone in the history of tourism and this year the theme of the Tourism Day is ‘Sustainable Tourism –a Tool for Development’.

The APTA after assessing several parameters selected the Visakhapatnam Railway Station for the award. The selectors observed the availability of tourist friendly infrastructure, including seating facilities, waiting halls AC and non-AC, toilets, eating outlets, food courts and chemist stalls in the station.

Maintenance and upkeep of railway station such as number of mechanised cleaning equipment for platforms, bio-degradable and non bio-degradable dustbins availability, regular upkeep and maintenance of railway tracks on the platform and bio-toilets made the railway station in bagging the award.