Guntakal: Poor publicity hits ‘economy food’ scheme in trains

Guntakal (Anantapur) : Railway passengers travelling in several trains to other districts and to states outside in South Central Railways are incensed at the train kitchens for not making Coffee available along with tea which was the normal practice.

The Railways used to give an option of buying either tea or coffee but for quite some time, coffee is not being sold.

Rajesh Kumar, who frequently hops between Anantapur-Vijayawada, says that he is particular to drink morning coffee but for the plea to supply coffee, a standard ‘no’ comes the answer.

Similar is the complaint from Ravi Prasad who shuttles in Prashanthi express once a month from Bengaluru to Visakhapatnam. He too complains that being a coffee lover, he prefers coffee for the first sip in the morning but he always gets the answer ‘no coffee’s even at stations like Guntakal, he had to go in search for coffee in a restaurant but never gets it from the tea walahs who comes to train compartments.

Another complaint that has come to the fore is absence of publicity for the new ‘economy food’ scheme launched by the Railways. The few food trolleys that are available are inadequate and unable to cater to all trains in all the platforms. Economy food had been launched on July 22 in all Railway stations for Rs 20 and Rs 50. One food vendor at the Railway station expressed disappointment that due to lack of publicity, not many had food packets despite the economy price.

A traveler in the general compartment opined that economy food should be made available right in front of general compartments in Railway stations so that they could buy as they are inclined to come out of train compartments for fear of losing their seats. The scheme is yet to catch up with travelers due to poor publicity and arrangements for its easy availability.