A heartfelt and open letter to India’s future railways minister
Live MintSir, Indian Railways is rightfully considered the lifeline of the country. So you’ll agree that as India celebrates the 150th birth anniversary of Mohandas K Gandhi — kicking off a two-year period of celebration in 2018 — there cannot be a more fitting tribute to one of the world’s greatest leaders than to offer hundreds of people the option to travel in clean and comfortable coaches on a route that he took in 1915, when he returned from South Africa. Back in 1915, as you know, Gandhi travelled along this route in a third class railway carriage, as part of attempt to reacquaint himself with a country he’d left nearly two decades earlier. Sir, it is befuddling how railway authorities expect four people to sit on a single berth—there are no separate seats— when across the country, a maximum of three people are assigned to a single berth. Hundreds of people travel between these two well-known business centres and tourist hubs every day, and Gujarat is one of the fastest growing states of the country.
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