CHENNAI: Thinking of travelling by the Duronto Express? Better carry an insect repellent to deal with uninvited co-passengers—cockroaches that infest the luxury coaches. The insects are taking the sheen off former Railway Minister Mamata Banerjee’s pet project, the Duronto Express non-stop trains. The latest episode in the train’s woes unfolded in the Coimbatore-bound Duronto Express from Chennai Central on Monday morning, when commuters in the C2 compartment had a harrowing experience sharing the compartment with cockroaches that crawled out of every nook and corner.Passengers said they found it difficult to even eat food on the train, as the pests roamed all around. “These were such tiny cockroaches. I had to keep watching out for them throughout the six-hour journey,” a traveller lamented.The roaches even crawled into the clothes of travellers, forcing commuters to spend much of their time fighting off the winged visitors. “We were swatting them with newspapers. I had stamped a dozen cockroaches by the end of my miserable journey,” a commuter said. Ironically, the coaches were disinfected on February 24, if one goes by the chart put up in the coach, he added. Passengers said they were unable to leave empty food containers on the floor without cockroaches crawling into them. “But what shocked us most was the reaction of the Travel Ticket Examiner; he was unconcerned and did not listen to our complaints,” a passenger rued as commuters wondered why they paid `625 for this “luxurious” treatment.On January 4, a passenger on the same Duronto Express train to Coimbatore found a worm in the sambar packet served for breakfast.
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