Govt moves to ensure drinking water, toilets at all petrol pumps along national highways

By Newest, timesofindia.indiatimes.com   October 24th, 2014

NEW DELHI: Taking Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Swachh Bharat to a different level, government is set to launch an awareness campaign for commuters right to drinking water and toilet facilities at all the 3,000 petrol pumps along national highways.

The campaign to be launched by road transport ministry is set to be endorsed by the Prime Minister's Office (PMO). "We will kick this off very soon so that people start demanding the facilities at all petrol pumps along the NHs. One of the key conditions for giving access to these petrol pumps is that they must provide drinking water and toilet facilities without any charge," said a senior ministry official.

He added while the ministry has prepared a plan to develop tourist rest places, parking space and emergency helipads along NHs at every 50 kms interval, they want that the existing facilities at petrol pumps must be operational.

A detailed survey of petrol pumps along NHs between Delhi and Changarh, and Delhi Jaipur had earlier exposed majority of the petrol pumps either had no facilities for public conveniences or the designated space was often found locked. The ministry had also been receiving several complaints on these issues from highway users.

Ministry sources said after the first round of awareness campaign for commuters using NHs, they will also run a campaign informing people how they can register complaints against erring petrol pumps so that action can be taken.

"Once we receive the complaints we will forward them to the respective oil companies, which have given licences for these petrol pumps. If even this measure does not work and petrol pumps continue to violate, we may have to take decision to block access from NHs to the petrol pumps," said a transport ministry official.