The people travelling in the Dhanbad – Alleppey express train were taken by surprise when a team of top railway officials made enquiries on the facilities available to the travelling public and their views for improving the running of the trains.
The team of officials led by Shubhranshu, Divisional Railway Manager, Salem, and comprising Ajay Jaiswal, Divisional Mechanical Engineer, K. P. Dhamodaran, Senior Divisional Commercial Manager, and others, hopped from one jam-packed compartment to other in the long distance train that had left the base station Dhanbad on Thursday evening, when it was plying between Salem and Erode junctions on Saturday morning.
Surprise inspection
The surprise inspection and interaction with the passengers was part of the Indian Railways’ Customer Facilitation Fortnight.
Pantry car
The team first made surprise entry into the pantry car. On noticing the board displaying the price list not prominently visible, Mr. Shubhranshu directed the catering contractor to display the board prominently. Similarly he directed to remove the large boxes of drinking water bottles stocked blocking the entry and exit.
The DRM observed that the gas cylinder regulators that were being used in the pantry car were of poor standard, and directed the contractor to replace them with ISI certified regulators.
The officials’ team underwent embarrassment, when passengers complained about the shortage of water in the toilets. Mr. Shubhranshu, who personally inspected the toilets, assured the passengers that water will be filled up in the tanks in all the compartments as soon as the train reached Erode junction.
Mr. Shubhranshu told the accompanying presspersons that the water shortage in the toilets was mainly due to the summer.
Each reservation compartment could accommodate 72 passengers. Due to holiday season, many passengers with unreserved tickets too use the toilets of reserved compartments.
The water could be filled up only in select stations such as Erode, he said and issued on the spot direction in this regard.
When some of the passengers drew his attention to the dumping of food wastes in the vestibule, the DRM assured that cleaning of all the compartments and the toilets will be done at Erode junction.
A few passengers complained about the quality of food items being supply by the pantry car, he urged them to give a written complaint or call customer care No. 138 to register their grievance instantly. Immediate action will be taken on such complaints, he assured.
The team, later returned to Salem from Erode by the Coimbatore – Lokamanya Tilak Express, where too the team members interacted with the travelling public.
Later, Mr. Shubhranshu told the presspersons at Salem Junction that Indian Railways is doing its level best to keep the trains and stations clean by launching various initiatives such as installing bio-toilets, placing of dust bins on platforms, etc.
All the initiatives of the Railways will be successful only with the active cooperation of the commuters.
The inspection and interaction exercise was aimed to seek the cooperation of all sections of the society, he added.
The team was led by Shubhranshu, Divisional Railway Manager, Salem
