PINAKI MAJUMDAR
Jamshedpur, March 13: Present-day Pied Pipers have a rat challenge at Tatanagar railway station that easily compares to Hamelin’s horror.
The matter is serious. Rats disturb sleeping passengers in the waiting room. They nibble at food everywhere, be it passengers’ tiffin, railway canteen, pantry cars or restaurants based on platform number-1.
Sometimes the rodents also damage railway property and goods at the parcel office.
The coaching yard and railway tracks are also vulnerable spots.
“We often spot the rats nibbling food at the Food Track- KMA Restaurant based on platform number 1. Though the matter has been reported to local railway authorities but to no avail,” said a passenger waiting for a train at the Tatanagar railway station.
Sources said in 2015, concerned over the rodent menace in Tatanagar, the Chakradharpur division had appointed a private agency. “It succeeded in eliminating rats temporarily,” the source added.
A fresh tender of Rs 10 lakh was issued in 2019 for the task of making the A 1-category Tatanagar railway station free of rats.
The private firm employed was in-charge of the rodent control programme for three years, the contract for which ended in December last year.
