In an incident that has raised serious concerns among passengers, a cockroach was found in a meal served on the Vande Bharat Premium Train in India. This unfortunate event has put the spotlight on the quality of food being served in what is touted as one of the country’s most prestigious train services.
Many passengers, who pay a premium for the enhanced services and amenities on the Vande Bharat trains, felt let down by this breach in hygiene standards.
On February 1, a passenger traveling from Rani Kamlapati to Jabalpur on the Vande Bharat Express experienced a distressing incident when he found a dead cockroach in his meal. The shocking discovery left the passenger “traumatised.” Upon arriving at the Jabalpur railway station, he promptly filed an official complaint with the West Central Railway.
Two days later, the passenger took to social media platform X to share his harrowing experience. The Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC) responded to his tweet and issued an apology for the unfortunate incident.
“I was travelling on 1/02/2024 train no. 20173 RKMP to JBP (Vande Bharat Exp). I was traumatised by seeing a dead cockroach in the food packet given by them,” wrote Dr Shubhendu Keshari while sharing a few pictures on X.
The first picture shows the formal complaint filed by Dr. Keshari with the West Central Railway – Jabalpur. In his complaint, he also mentioned his co-passenger, Rajesh Shrivastava, as a witness to the incident. The remaining pictures show the dead cockroach found in the non-vegetarian thali that Dr. Keshari had ordered.
After the tweet went viral on social media, IRCTC apologised to the passenger and wrote, “Sir, our sincere apology for the experience you had. The matter is viewed seriously, and the hefty penalty has been imposed on the concerned service provider. Moreover, monitoring has been strengthened at the source.”
“Contractors are the king in Indian Railways. There must be some method to control and punish these contractors @RailMinIndia. No matter how good a train is, these contractors have destroyed the experience of passengers,” wrote an individual.