Southern Railways spent a whopping Rs 2.6 crore for inaugurating two Vande Bharat trains in Kerala and Tamil Nadu. This was revealed through Right to Information (RTI) applications filed by activist and former employee of the Indian Railways, Ajay Basudev Bose. An RTI response by the Chennai Division of the Southern Railways stated that a total of Rs 1,14,42,108 was spent for the launch of the Chennai-Coimbatore Vande Bharat Express. The train was flagged off by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on April 8. Out of this, Rs 1,05,03,624 was paid to a Chennai-based private event management company named Evoke Media.
On the other hand, the Thiruvananthapuram division of the Southern Railways responded by saying that a total amount of Rs 1,48,18,259 was paid to an event management company named Maitri Advertising Works Pvt for organising the inauguration of the Thiruvananthapuram-Kasaragod train, on April 25, which was also flagged off by PM Modi.
The massive amount spent for the inaugural functions has raised concerns among activists and observers, who feel that this amount could have been used to improve infrastructural and other basic facilities of the Railways.
“As per the information I’ve been getting through RTIs, it is understood that a lot of money is being spent on such programmes. All of this money could have been used to improve safety facilities in the Railways. It is also important to note that despite the Railways having their own public relations department, most of these works are outsourced to private agencies,” said Bose.
Bose claims that this extravagant spending on promoting Vande Bharat trains is an exercise at diverting attention from other issues plaguing the Railways, which the Union government has failed to address.
Meanwhile, Southern Railway CPRO B Guganesan was reported to have said that the amount paid for the event management companies was used by them sprucing up the railway stations, brightening up and cleaning the venue and other work including printing of materials, publicity for the programme and others.