The Tejas Express, which flagged off on the Mumbai Goa route by Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu, was touted as the train which would usher in a new era for the Indian Railways. The semi-luxury train is reported to have automatic doors and can run at an impressive speed of 200 Kmph.
The train also boasts of state of the art facilities like on-board entertainment system, LCD screens, WiFi, coffee vending machines, snack tables, smart windows with automatic blinds, GPS based passenger information display system among others. The toilets too are equipped with automatic water taps, hand dryers and bio toilets.
Even though the Indian Railways has tried to provide the best possible facilities, some passengers decided to do whatever they could to ruin the pristine condition of the train.
First it was reported on Saturday that as the Tejas coach reached Mumbai from Delhi, one of its windows was found vandalized possibly due to a stone being thrown at it. There were no passengers inside then as it was brought to Mumbai before the launch. Now it appears that that was just the beginning of the story and the train went though something far worse during its maiden round trip.
As per reports, some passengers stooped to new lows and damaged the LCD screens, stole the headphones which accompanied the entertainment systems, soiled the toilets and littered in general. The report quoted a passengers who claimed that he saw some co-passengers trying to uproot the LCD screens in order to possibly take them home. He also rued the fact that the bio-toilet was soon stinking as the people who had used it didn’t bother to flush properly.
After the train had completed its journey, the railway maintenance staff were shocked to find the whole floor littered with plastic bottles, cups, wrappers even though the train was equipped with dustbins having a novel garbage compacting facility.
The Tejas Express is also equipped with CCTV cameras so it remains to be seen whether the railway authorities would try to track down and punish the unruly passengers.
This isn’t the only time passengers of Indian Railways have shown an abject lack of civic sense. It was reported in 2016 how the modern Mahamana Express too was meted out the same treatment. The train which was flagged by PM Modi runs from Varanasi to New Delhi.
Just 10 days after the train started running, people were appalled to note unhygienic coaches with tattered newspapers thrown around, food littered on the floor and even a discarded beer bottle lying around. Passengers just didn’t litter the train, according to reports they also ended up stealing the taps and toilet kits fitted in compartments.
