'Playing With Our Health': Railway Water, Food Under Scrutiny In Bhopal

For a railway passenger, there is often little time to make a choice. The train stops for a few minutes, someone steps onto the platform, buys a bottle of water and perhaps a packet of food, and gets back on board before the whistle blows. There is hardly any opportunity to check what is inside. The purchase is based almost entirely on trust.

That trust is now under scrutiny at the Bhopal Railway Division after a sample of Rail Neer, the packaged drinking water supplied through the Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation, was reportedly found to be substandard during a recent quality check.

The sample was collected in July as part of routine testing. According to findings from the division, it failed to conform to the prescribed standards. A sample of loose gram flour used in food preparation was also reported to have failed quality parameters.

For passengers, these are not merely laboratory findings. They concern something as basic as the water they drink and the food they eat while travelling.

It also assumes significance because of the sheer number of people depending on the railway system every day. In 2025-26, the Bhopal Railway Division handled roughly 1.14 lakh passenger journeys every day.

Bhopal Junction alone handles the halt of more than 150 trains a day and has an estimated daily footfall of around 70,000 passengers.

For thousands of them, buying food and water on a platform is not optional. Long journeys, children and elderly passengers, summer heat and brief station halts mean travellers often have to depend on whatever is available at railway stalls.

Karnail Singh, a passenger from Punjab whose train halted at Bhopal, said he bought food and water at the station but was unhappy with what he received. "Our train stopped at Bhopal and we bought food and water here. The water was not good and the food items were also not good. This is playing with the health of passengers," he said.

Another passenger, Dinesh Chandra Pandey, said the answer lay in constant monitoring rather than occasional checks. "The effort should be to provide passengers with good food and water and ensure cleanliness. Checks should be conducted regularly so that vendors remain alert and stale food is not sold," Pandey said.

Rail Neer is meant to provide a standardised and reliable option within this system. It is supplied through IRCTC plants across the country. Around 5,000 Rail Neer bottles are supplied every day from Mandideep to stations in the Bhopal division, including Bhopal, Rani Kamalapati, Narmadapuram, Itarsi, Vidisha and Ganj Basoda.

At the current price of Rs 14 for a one-litre bottle, that supply alone represents retail sales of about Rs 70,000 a day, or around Rs 2.55 crore over a year if the entire daily supply is sold.

Concerns over railway catering are not limited to packaged water. On July 19, 2026, a joint team of the Railway Protection Force, Food Safety and Drug Administration, revenue officials and city police carried out surprise inspections at base kitchens supplying food to railway passengers in Itarsi. Officials checked bread, spices, samosas, vegetables, rice, used cooking oil and other ingredients. Expired and poor-quality food material was seized and destroyed, samples were collected for testing, and one base kitchen was sealed after serious irregularities were detected.

Railway officials say the water issue is being investigated.

Bhopal Division Senior Divisional Commercial Manager Saurabh Kataria said Rail Neer was regularly tested and that after one sample raised concerns, more bottles from the same batch were collected for examination. "We regularly check Rail Neer. During one check, some bottles from a batch were found to be below standard. We got samples from the same batch from Mandideep, Maneri and Ballarshah. To ensure that the testing is correct, the samples were sent to Jabalpur," Kataria said.

He said IRCTC officials also reached the spot after the matter came to notice and around 10 bottles were sent for further testing. Kataria said the Railways conducts regular checks on food as well. "Last year, we collected 765 samples of food items. This year, 287 samples have been collected so far. None of them has failed," he said.

But passengers say the real test is what reaches the customer, not simply how many samples are collected. "Officials need to exercise control over all vendors. If officers regularly inspect them, there will be control. Otherwise, things will continue the way they are," another passenger said.