RailNeer goes off the racks till Oct 22

The supply of packaged drinking water will be curtailed owing to the maintenance of the Ambernath plant. Sources in IRCTC said two days of every month is dedicated to primary maintenance, which is in addition to stringent 15-day maintenance undertaken twice a year

Mumbai: In a first, RailNeer packaged drinking water will not be available on the entire suburban rail network on the Main and Harbour lines of Western Railways (WR) and Central Railways (CR) till October 22. The Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC) informed the railways that from October 16-22, RailNeer will not be supplied on Churchgate-Virar, CSMT-Kasara/Karjat and Panvel routes.

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The supply of packaged drinking water will be curtailed owing to the maintenance of the Ambernath plant. Sources in IRCTC said two days of every month is dedicated to primary maintenance, which is in addition to stringent 15-day maintenance undertaken twice a year.

This is the fourth time in a year that RailNeer has gone off the racks at suburban stations. In September, February, and October 2022, IRCTC carried out a 15-day periodical maintenance during which the plant was shut.

“We have informed the railways to allow other packaged drinking water brands so that it doesn’t inconvenience the commuters. We will also carry out technical maintenance of the plant,” said Rahul Himalian, group general manager (West zone), IRCTC.

The Ambernath plant has a capacity of 14,500 batches, but the production of packaged drinking water does not go beyond 13,000 batches.

Each batch comprises 12 bottles. The city’s demand for RailNeer is around 18,000 batches in October, touching 22,000 batches in summer.

IRCTC has a stock of over 50,000 RailNeer bottles, which will be supplied to long-distance trains and food stalls in this period.

A power cut of 6-7 hours in the Ambernath plant led to production delays over the weekend. “The power cut delayed our transportation of bottled water. To streamline this, we decided to prepone the maintenance schedule, due to which curtailing the supply has become inevitable,” an IRCTC official said.

Meanwhile, WR and CR have informed food stall owners to buy other branded packaged drinking water bottles that are permitted by the railway. The food stall owners said the market price of these bottles is ₹20, and buying these in bulk is a problem.

“It seems the railways want to stop providing the affordable RailNeer to passengers and introduce other private brands. So, they are frequently creating shortage in supply,” said Madhu Kotian, president, Mumbai Rail Pravasi Sangh.