Rodents on prowl, rattled passengers dread train journeys
With complaints pouring in, railway officials say frequency of fumigation will be increased.
3 min read
A private company fumugates the coaches once a week at present.
Rodents are proving to be a big nuisance to the passengers of Indian Railways, especially those travelling by long-distance trains. The passengers have complained that they have to suffer not only inconvenience and physical injuries, but also damage to their belongings due to these rats.
According to railway employees, the rats also damage electric wires and circuits thus increasing the requirement of frequent repairs and resulting in delay in services.
Sushant Singh, a resident of Malwadi who travelled from Patna to Pune earlier this week, said rats got into both his bags and damaged his clothes.
“I was travelling in an AC III-tier coach of the Patna-Pune Express. The coach had so many rats running around that it was difficult for passengers to sleep. When I de-boarded, I noticed that rats had chewed holes in both my bags. They had also damaged by branded clothes. Other passengers told me that it was a chronic trouble and hence it was important not to carry food items inside the bags to prevent rat attacks,” said Singh.
The rodents, railway staffers said, also caused operational problems.
“About a month ago, rats had cut the cables of the air-conditioning system of the first-class compartment. The passengers had to suffer despite paying the exorbitant charges. The passengers started creating ruckus leading to delay in the departure of train,” said a railway employee.
Also making their railway journeys troublesome are cockroaches and bedbugs, complain passengers.
“It’s not very rare for the blankets given to passengers travelling in AC coaches to have bedbugs. Coaches in many trains — especially those next to the pantry car — are infested with cockroaches as well. In such cases, the passengers have no other option but to spend the night awake. It has happened with me twice this month,” said Ranjana Raut, a professor working with a private college who has to frequently travel between Pune and Indore.
Railway officials said a private agency had been outsourced the job of carrying out fumigation at a prescribed regular interval — usually once a week. They are also supposed to use glue boards to trap rats, which are then disposed of.
“We can’t use methods that kill the rodents inside a coach, because if we fail to locate a dead rat then the foul smell will make the entire coach stink. The private agency mostly uses glue boards to catch the rats. The frequency of fumigation is more in the trains in which passengers approach the staffers with complaints,” said Y K Singh, the railway spokesman.
Singh said since the complaints from passengers were increasing, the private agency would be directed to increase the frequency of fumigation and rat-catching exercises in the long-distance trains.
“Apart from that, the passengers should also take care and avoid throwing food items inside the trains. They should use bins so that the rodents and cockroaches don’t get easy access to food,” said Singh.
You May Like
