BENGALURU: Rodents are having a field day at Yesvantpur railway station thanks to the running of reduced trains from here for over six months due to the corona epidemic. The cables of the baggage scanner appear to be one of their favourite items.On Monday, the staffers operating the equipment were seen manually checking each baggage piece of passengers. When asked about the scanner, a railway source said, “The cable wire has been shredded into pieces by rats. This is the situation since Saturday. Hence, we are carrying out manual checks. Technicians have been alerted and they will rectify it at the earliest.”
Stating that this was not a one-off occurrence, a source at Yesvantpur station said the problem of snapped cable had occurred quite a few times during the last six months. “To conserve power, the scanner is switched off when trains are not expected to run for a few hours. When trains were running 24x7 and staff were around it, this issue never happened,” he said. He added, “There are some big rats I have seen scurrying around the station! They are around due to the food stalls at platforms.”
Among the Covid-19 specials that originate from Yesvantpur station are Krantivira Sangolli Rayanna (Bengaluru)-Hubballi Janashatabdi Express, Yesvantpur-Howrah Doronto Express, Karnataka-Sampark Kranti Special to Hazrat Nizammudin and Yesvantpur-Shivamogga Town Janshatabdi Express.
Meanwhile, the UV Baggage Bath, a luggage disinfecting kiosk launched at KSR on August 3 for passenger safety from the coronavirus using Ultra Violet C (UVC) light, has completed a two-month trial.
Ragul T, Director at Optimurz, the Bengaluru-based firm which designed this special equipment, said, “It is voluntary for passengers. We plan to charge Rs 10 per baggage after the Railways gives us the approval.”