Stations turn bone-dry as Rail Neer supply dwindles

Mumbai: The city’s railway stations have been plagued by an acute shortage of Rail Neer, a brand of bottled water by Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC). Sources say that there is an almost 50 per cent deficit in the product’s supply, which is significant as the Railways does not allow the sale of any other kind of packaged drinking water at its stations.

An average of 60,000 to 86,000 bottles are delivered daily from the Rail Neer plant at Ambernath to city stations, according to tempo drivers who transport the bottles.

However, railway officials said the demand for bottled water has increased because of the sweltering heat, and they have been unable to meet it. The Asian Age on Friday visited the factory, which is run by the IRCTC and has been operational for two years, where the packaged drinking water is made but this reporter and a photographer were not permitted to enter the plant. On asking officials to be allowed entry, she was asked to get permission from the railway headquarters.

Jamuna Thakkar (name changed), a driver who has been transporting these bottles to various railway stations since the time the plant opened in October of 2015, told newspaper that as of today a total of eight to 12 trucks travel to all stations in Mumbai to supply Rail Neer bottles. “We were told that in two years we would be getting more work and that the ultimate aim is to produce two lakh bottles for Mumbai, but this cannot be seen on the ground,” he said. Mr Thakkar added, “In fact, on a good day around 86,000 bottles are transported to Mumbai and on an average one the number is 60,000. The stall owners at various stations are extremely irritated and in fact many have began to sell other brands when Rail Neer bottles run out.”

One such stall owner, Upendra Kumar, who operates at Kurla station, feels that commuters are extremely thirsty and many a time they get into arguments with him as a result. He said, “I have read in the newspapers that the humidity was 91 per cent yesterday. So, its only natural that anyone would get angry if a stall that should have water doesn’t have any.” He added, “I think that it is high time that the Railways supply us the amount we need in this inhuman heat.”

Although railway officials have always maintained that Rail Neer should be given first preference and that the stall owners can provide an alternative always, the Railway Board in 2016 sent out a circular making the sale of Rail Neer alone compulsory across all 16 zones in the country. The circular categorically stated that “only Rail Neer” would be provided at all stations.

When contacted, IRCTC public relations officer Pinakin Morawala said, “This is not true. We have been manufacturing 2 lakh bottles every day since January. Until then, this number was only 60,000 but we have increased our production.”

Officials did not, however, respond to a query on the exact demand for Rail Neer from all the stations, but railway sources have revealed that demand is a minimum of at least 4 lakh per day.

Meanwhile, commuters like Anand Shah, who travels from Kandivali to Churchgate, said that he had to wait for an hour for water, as there was none at his station last week. “I finally had to get down at Churchgate where I drank almost two bottles. If there is a problem, they need to sort it out now… there will be no need for it once the rains start,” he said.

Railways water dream

Other than the water-packaging plant at Ambernath, the Railways have Rail Neer plants at Danapur (Bihar), Nangloi (Delhi), Palur (Tamil Nadu), Amethi (Uttar Pradesh) and Parassala (Kerala).  The plants at Amethi and Parassala are under the public-private partnership model. Two new water-packaging plants at Bilaspur (Chhattisgarh) and Nagpur (Maharashtra) will be commissioned in 2017.