BHUBANESWAR: At least 15 passengers were admitted to Railway Hospital at Kharagpur when they complained of uneasiness and started vomitting after eating food on Puri-Howrah Shatabdi Express on Wednesday. The train was detained for nearly one and a half hour and a team of doctors examined food served in the breakfast after the train left Bhubaneswar. GGM (Eastern Zone) of IRCTC Debashis Chandra said passengers of C2 coach felt uneasy and some of them vomited a few hours after eating non-veg food in the breakfast.
Preliminary inquiry revealed that 695 food packets, including 225 vegetarian and 470 non-vegetarian were loaded at Puri Station to be served in the train. “The breakfast was served at around 8.30 am. The on-duty manager informed about food poisoning after a group of passengers had omelette served in the breakfast. The passengers were de-boarded at Kharagpur and hospitalised,” he said in a statement.
Kharagpur DRM also rushed to Kharagpur and arranged medical assistance with the help of railway doctors. Some of the passengers were also provided medical assistance at Howrah and sent home.
Meanwhile, Railway authorities have collected food samples from pantry car and sent those to laboratory for testing. An inquiry has also been ordered and GGM (South Central Zone) asked to visit the kitchen at Puri from where the food was loaded.
“I have also instructed all my officers to remain extremely vigilant to avoid such incidents in future. Action is being initiated against the licencee M/S Doon’s Caterers whose performance has also been kept under surveillance,” Chandra added. On May 11, passengers were also taken ill in a similar manner after having stale food served on-board New Delhi-Bhubaneswar Rajdhani Express leading to detention of the train at Tata Nagar.