Passenger alleges poor service onboard, Rly starts inquiry

KOLKATA: The South Eastern Railway will be sending a letter to its cleaning and commercial division after a passenger complained of unclean sheets and meals being served on Mumbai-Howrah Duronto Express.

The passenger complained of dirty bed sheets and meager meals. A senior officer of the South Eastern Railway said that the matter is being investigated.

"Investigation is on and specific divisions like cleaning and commercial will be notified about the complaint. The process will take two to three days. A letter will be sent to the divisions," the officer said.

The incident was reported by the passenger on June 22 via Twitter. "After paying 4k per person and facing this harassment, 5 hours late, bad service in coach is real pain. This is the only reason to choose flight for any travel. I know fare varies nowadays but wastage of time is worst thing ever. #Mumbai_Howrah_Duronto_Express," the passenger Abhijit Mondal wrote.He complained of receiving a small quantity of breakfast for Rs 105, and the dirty towel and bed sheet. Mondal said that the blankets were in an unusable condition, as told to him by a staff. The train was running nine hours late. He had to take the train as he runs a business and had an emergency affair to attend. "If I knew this is the kind of harassment that I will have to face, I would have chosen to go for other means of transport," he said. "A passenger had complained about the catering service providers serving khichdi for dinner. The train was running late and normally we do not carry extra food. There were 1000 passengers to serve and to cook the khichdi was the easiest and the fastest thing. Trains running late are not in our hands and we cannot be held accountable for it," the Joint General Manager of HR and PR for IRCTC Madhumita Chatterjee said.