Chennai: The number of complaints of rats scurrying around in air-conditioned compartments and pantry cars of long-distance trains is on the rise, making travel a nightmare for passengers.
Maintenance personnel in railways feel that the primary reason for rats to invade air-conditioned compartments is due to the cooling effect and also the piled blankets that are often used by rodents to hide.
The rat menace issue is mostly raised by passengers in long-distance trains going to Kerala and parts of Andhra Pradesh. Sources in a rail users’ forum said they receive 10 to 15 complaints a month from long-distance passengers on rat menace, even as railway authorities maintain they clean the trains on a daily basis.
“It has been a major issue until the last four to five years. Now again this issue has been raised by passengers that is a cause of worry. We will certainly look into the issue seriously and we also want passengers to address the issue then and there with coach number at the stations,” said K.Venkatasubhramanyam, senior mechanical engineer, Southern Railway.
The latest complaint lodged with authorities in the matter was by passengers in a three-tier air-conditioned coach from Thiruvananthapuram to Chennai central on September 28.
“I was not able to sleep as two to three rats were running over my body as I was sleeping on the lower berth. There was no point complaining to railway officials who were in the compartment as they were not able to do anything,” said Mohammed Reji, an employee in a private college, who travels twice in a month to Kerala. The problem has been persisting for quite a long time in AC coaches of long- distance trains that are running from Chennai.
“One cannot just blame the railway officials in this regard. It is also the passengers’ responsibility to make sure they do not spill food items on the floor and beneath the seats when there is a steel box and a plastic kit fixed in every compartment,” said a health inspector at Chennai central station. Passengers complain that coaches are not regularly cleaned thereby attracting rats and cockroaches.
“Most of the times, the compartments are not taken to the Basin bridge yard where they are supposed to be washed,” said a passenger who travels to Hyderabad every week by Charminar Express.
