A train passenger has shared a photo of contaminated food received during the journey that is gaining traction on social media. The incident happened on Kashi Express on Monday when the passenger ordered food. The picture shows nearly invisible insect mixed along with a grain of rice on spoon. It has grossed out social media users, who demanded action. Indian railways took cognisance of the photo and asked the passenger to share the PNR number and contact details via direct message.

Posting the troubling photo, the X user also provided the specifics of his journey aboard train number 15018. Kashi Express runs between Gorakhpur and Lokmanya Tilak Terminus in Mumbai.

@AshwiniVaishnaw train no.15018 kashi express found insect on food pic.twitter.com/uLS5vJzw5A

— Parvez Hashmi (@parvezhashmi90) May 13, 2024

The user also tagged Railways minister Ashwini Vaishnaw.

The photo invited several comments from users who recalled their own experiences.

“You got premium Chinese thali at the price of veg… Railway may ask you to pay more,” commented one user. “That’s Proteins Bro. Good for Health. From Indian Railways,” said another.

“Even after paying premium prices, this is the service we get,” a third user said.

Railway Sewa also took notice of the post gaining traction and commented on the thread. “Sir, kindly share PNR and mobile number preferably in Direct Message (DM),” it said in the post.

Earlier this month, a review of Vande Bharat Express by a traveller from Kolkata went viral on X. She called the snacks offered onboard train “average” and “same as Shatabdi (another type of train).

The user also shared photos of the snack that showed packets of Diet Chivda Mixture, Roasted Peanut Chikki and a food item inside a paper bag.

She also posted a video of the washrooms, which the woman said impressed her the most.

New Delhi:

The train collision in Andhra Pradesh was caused after one of the drivers overshot a signal, a senior railway official said. At least 13 people and 40 were injured when the Palasa passenger train hit the Rayagada passenger train from behind at Kantakapalli, about 40 Km from Visakhapatnam.

Speaking to NDTV, an East Coast Railway official said that the accident was caused by a human error as the driver of the Rayagada train missed a red signal.

“The driver of the Visakhapatnam-Rayagada passenger train was responsible for the accident, as he overshot a signal and hit the rear end of the Palasa train. The driver of the Rayagada train was also killed in the accident,” says Biswajit Sahu, Chief Public Relations Officer at East Coast Railways.

“Investigation is still on and the picture will be clearer only after that,” he added.

Relief and rescue operations on the track are likely to be completed by today evening.

So far, 18 trains have been cancelled and 22 others diverted due to the collision.

Expressing shock over the incident, Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced Rs 2 lakh assistance for the families of those who died in the accident and Rs 50,000 for the injured.

“Authorities are providing all possible assistance to those affected. The Prime Minister extends condolences to the bereaved families and prays that the injured recover soon,” the Prime Minister’s office said on X (formerly Twitter).

India, which has the world’s largest rail network, has seen several disasters over the years. In June, a horrific accident involving three trains killed over 280 passengers in Odisha. The Shalimar-Chennai Central Coromandel Express, Bengaluru-Howrah Superfast Express, and a goods train were involved in the accident on June 2 near the Bahanaga Bazar station.

New Delhi:

The Northeast Frontier Railway (NFR) is developing an artificial intelligence-based device that would be able to read the blinking eyes of drivers and alert them or stop the train in case they are feeling sleepy, according to sources.

In June, the Railway Board had asked the NFR to develop a device that could detect the alertness of train drivers on the basis of blinking of eyes.

The device — Railway Driver Assistance System (RDAS) — will not only sound an alert but also apply emergency brakes in case a driver loses alertness for a certain period of time. RDAS will be interfaced with a vigilance control device to apply emergency brakes, the sources said.

“The device is still in the development stage and trials are on to ensure its proper functioning. The technical team of the NFR is working on it. We hope that it will be ready in another few weeks,” a railway source told PTI.

On August 2, the Railway Board wrote to the NFR and asked it to expedite the in-house development of RDAS. It also said that once the device is ready, it will be fitted in 20 goods train engines (WAG9) and passenger train engines (WAP7) as a pilot project.

All the zones have also been asked to provide their feedback on the working of the system after using it so that further improvements can be made to it if needed.

The Indian Railway Loco Runningmen Organisation (IRLRO), however, dubbed the device a “futile exercise”, saying that all fast-moving trains already have mechanisms to keep drivers alert.

“Every high-speed train engine comes with a foot-operated lever (pedal) which a driver needs to hit once every 60 seconds. In case, the driver fails to do so, emergency brakes are applied automatically and the train comes to a halt. The present system is good enough to ensure that the driver is alert,” said IRLRO working president Sanjay Pandhi.

“I believe RDAS is a futile exercise. If the railways is really serious about the safety of train operations, it should, among other things, conduct studies on aspects such as fatigue, running hours, facilities and rest hours of train drivers.

“In many cases, drivers, including women, do not get any breaks for having food or answering nature’s calls during their over 11-hour duty. If these things are well taken care of, there is no need to have any RADS in engines,” Pandhi said. 

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)