Mumbai: Rats are travelling to the Pink city in style. And the Jaipur-Mumbai Central Superfast Express is now home to several of these animals.

Asheesh Bhimsaria, an executive with an MNC in Andheri, recently discovered this. "On December 5,I was travelling with my wife, sister and kid in the first AC compartment. Rats were having a whale of a time under the seats," he said. "The attendants heard me out. But they were absolutely casual in their approach. I was told it was a routine thing and I should give a formal complaint."

Bhimasari then called the ticket collector (TC) and lodged a complaint. "By evening the number of rats increased. It was very difficult to stay inside the cabin," he said. "The attendants tried to help us by driving away the rats but nothing much came of it."

The ticket collector with whom Bhimsari had lodged a complaint got off after a couple of hours. The new TC asked him, "What is your problem? You have already lodged a complaint. Is there anything new?" The TC apparently muttered "deemag kharab kar diya", when Bhimsari kept persisting that something be done about the rats.

But there was little that could be done and the family had to spend the entire night outside the cabin like travellers without tickets. "Despite paying seven times more than the fare of a sleeper class berth (IAC fare is approximately Rs2,000 and SL Rs300) we were forced to travel this way. I have sent a copy of my complaint to the railway minister hoping things will improve," he said.

Shyam Gupta, the chief public relations officer of Western Railway, said, "Central Warehousing Corporation, a government undertaking, has been given the contract of controlling pests and rats on trains. The coaches are normally cleaned at Mumbai Central and Bandra. But we will look into the complaint and question the company if required."
Source : Central