Mumbai, Oct 3 (IANS): Reliance Infrastructure's Mumbai Metro, already noted for its spotless clean environs, is now all set to become 'germ free' with a new hygiene initiative, an official said here on Saturday.

A series of trials were conducted by an international independent agency to test the bacterial loads, identifying the right set of disinfectants and spraying them to successfully bring down the bacterial loads on washroom basins, floors and door handles to negligible levels.

"The highly effective sanitation and hygiene programme made a soft loanch at Ghatkopar, Andheri and Sakinaka Metro stations. As a part of its Swachh Metro Abhiyaan, the new initiative was formally unveiled to mark the first anniversary of the launch of the Swachh Bharat campaign," the official said.

This has taken to a whole new level of sanitation and hygiene operations in Mumbai Metro that are comparable with the best practices adopted by most of the top-flight healthcare institutions for their public areas and OPDs, as well as five-star hospitality establishments around the world.

A commuter - Metro Hero Sameer Bhatt - was honoured for stopping a co-passenger from spitting on the Airport Road Station platform and later handing him over to the concerned authorities.

BMC Commissioner Ajoy Mehta felicitated Bhat, the Mumbai Metro staff, officials and others for maintaining cleanliness in the presence of Mumbai Metro One Pvt. Ltd. CEO A.K. Mishra

Its much-appreciated cleanliness model involved rigorous manual and mechanical cleaning of the trains, station premises, internal roof, station equipment and depot buildings.

While light cleaning work is done every night, heavy cleaning work is carried out every 45 days besides pest control every 90 days on the network which carried over 12 crore commuters since its launch last year.