'Paan' stains may force rlys to change colour of locals

Paan stains and commuters’ spitting habits may change the colour of city’s new trains. The new trains that will be manufactured under the phase two of the Mumbai Urban Transport Project (MUTP) will not be violet.

“We may go back to red or simply leave them colourless like the Delhi Metro with a small horizontal colour strip. The new colour combination has not been finalised yet,” a senior railway planning official said.

“Phase two of the MUTP will get 72 new trains that will be made of stainless steel. It will cost about 20% more than the existing trains,” he added.

“The National Institute of Design has recommended dark shades given the commuters’ habit of spitting. We end up spending lakhs of rupees per coach to clean it with chemicals,” he said.

The interiors of the trains, however, will be multi-coloured with seats and other accessories in bright and attractive colours. The new lot of trains will start coming to Mumbai in early 2012.

The paan stains have been costing the railways a huge amount. The railways is spending about Rs1.5 crore annually to clean all the trains thoroughly.

The older trains had a reddish brown colour and the stains used to get camouflaged over it. However, the violet-white colours of the new trains have again exposed this habit of commuters in a big way.