Railway officials told to hold spot check in all coaches

In his order (D.O.No.2017/TG – IV/10/PA/398) dated October 9, 2017 (copy of which is available with DT Next), Chairman of Railway Board Ashwani Lohani ‘advised’ GMs, DRMs and senior officers to “undertake journeys in sleeper/3A/2A/1A classes at least once in every quarter to take stock of the condition of coaches, cleanliness, amenities in addition to assessing passenger’s satisfaction.” 

The chairman specifically asked officers to prefer longer routes for assessing deficiencies. Going by the order, officers of southern railway (SR) must complete their inspection trips in a month. The board has also sought a report of the inspection journey from all zones within next month and ensure follow up action based on the experiences gained from the periodic journeys in their jurisdictions. 

A few senior SR officers welcomed the order and said that this step would help understand the requirements of travellers better. “How will the head of commercial or mechanical department learn about lack of hygiene aboard train toilets and coach jerk during train movement if they always travel in AC coaches? Boarding an empty train at a station before or after the journey once a while would not give them an accurate reading of the service deficiency, mainly the problems faced during the journey by people,” explained a senior mechanical department officer. 

“Sometimes, accounts department will decline our proposals without understanding the importance of the work. How will the top brass in finance department understand the necessity to execute some work related to second class sleeper coaches without travelling in it? They will not decline a work summarily if they experience the problem first-hand,” another officer in the commercial department reasoned.