Rats rule the roost in New Delhi station

In a bid to deal with the rat menace at the New Delhi Railway Station, the authorities are all set to launch mega drives to identify hiding places of rodents creating ruckus at the stations.

The problem on the station premises has been giving railway authorities sleepless nights and they have now launched a mega exercise to drive these creatures away.

Officials said that the railway station has turned into a breeding ground for rats, with packs of these rodents scurrying around the cloakroom, inside the parcel room, in the canteen and the restaurants. To make the stations rat- free, the agency has picked up a massive operation to identify the hiding places of the rodents inside the railway station so that repellents can be placed there along with rat traps. A senior official at the railway station said, “We have made several attempts to drive them away, like sealing their burrows in the cloakroom with cement, but nothing seems to work. The menace sub- sides for some time only for it to recur.”

It is learnt that the area worst affected by the menace is the station’s cloakroom, where rats are in the habit of chewing up the passengers’ luggage.

The railway officials asserted that the passengers themselves are to blame for this as they throw food items on platforms and all over the station, which draws rats to the premises.

“The cloakroom is just next to the canteen, due to which the rodents are always present there. Also, passengers at times leave edible items in their luggage in the cloakroom, which attracts the rats,” he said.