Daijiworld Media Network - Mumbai

Mumbai, May 25: One of the biggest challenges when introducing a new public service in India is its maintanence, especially when it comes to cleanliness and sanitation. It is no secret that most people in India lack civil sense, and any new facility given by the government or the private sectors soon becomes a headache for civic authorities simply because people fail to maintain cleanliness.

That is what has happened with the much talked about Mumbai-Goa Tejas Express too, the country's first high-speed semi-luxurious train, which was flagged off on Monday May 22. When the train returned to Mumbai's CST station on Tuesday May 23, the railway officials were shocked to see the mess the passengers had created. And it wasn't just the mess, gadgets like headphones were actually stolen.

A report by Deccan Chronicle on the issue states that the passengers had thrashed the LCD screens, stolen headphones, soiled the toilets and littered the entire train.

"The railway authorities were shocked to see the mess on the train, following which they have now appealed to passengers to safeguard the Tejas Express and treat it like their own property," the report states.

The train has been fully booked up till May 26 and also during the Ganesh Chaturthi season.

Aditya Tembe, who was travelling economy on the same train, told Deccan Chronicle that 'some of the passengers tried to remove the LCD screen by pulling on its hinges, probably wanting to take it home as it is easy to carry in one’s bag, but after a while, a railway official came and tightened the screws'.

Just one hour into the journey, the state-of-the art toilets, combination of a bio and a vacuum toilet, began to stink as people did not bother to use the flush. "The toilet was soiled and was stinking as the people didn’t even bother to flush properly after they used it. In fact, I had to flush twice until it was clean enough to be used," Tembe said.

For the mainatenance staff on the train, the task was similar to that on any other train. "The floor of the train was littered with cups, pet bottles, wrappers and bags of chips, which we had to clean up at the end of the journey. The amount of garbage found aboard Tejas was just like on any other train," they said.

In fact, the damage to Tejas Express had begun even before it was brought to Mumbai from Delhi's rail coach factory for the flag-off. One of the windows of the windows of the train had been smashed by some miscreants, and the Cental Railway had to replace it.