‘Poison’ has gone, stain’s next

The gutka ban has made the railways happy. The paan and gutka stains have been costing the railways a bomb to clean the trains,  with the spending touching Rs1.5 crore annually.

The new swank violet trains that the railways inducted in service two years ago, have changed colour due to paan and gutka stains and spit marks on them. The railways anticipate that the new-age Siemens violet coloured trains would now get fewer spit stains.

However, commuter organisations are not too hopeful of a change. “Paan stains have damaged the aesthetics of the train and the ban on gutka may reduce spitting, but not actually reduce paan consumption,” Subhash Gupta, a member of National Railway Users Consultative Committee

“Violet colour was a bit of a mistake as it has been covered up with dirt and paan stains. The colour of new trains should be a bit bolder so that it takes up the dirt and paan stains. The new trains will be made of steel and we will come up with a smarter colour pattern,’’ said a railway official.

The older trains had a reddish brown colour and the paan stain marks were camouflaged under it. However, the violet-white new shade of the Mumbai train has again exposed the habit of commuters in a big way. “The National Institute of Design has been asked to work on the aesthetics and design element of the new trains that are expected t come later this year.