Title - Western railway reserves luggage compartment for Dabbawalas

MUMBAI: After Central Railway, the dabbawalas of Mumbai have been given a helping hand from Western railway.

WR' chief public relations officer Sharat Chandrayan said, "To facilitate the movement of Tiffin Box Carriers (Dabbawalas), we have earmarked the Churchgate end Luggage compartment for Tiffin Box Carriers between 10.00 am to 12.00 pm in UP direction (i.e. towards Churchgate) and 2 pm to 4.30 pm in Down direction(i.e. towards Virar) in Suburban trains over Mumbai Suburban Section."

A few months ago, CR too had reserved the luggage compartment for a couple of hours on the Kalyan end in both direction between 10 am to 12.30 pm and 2.30 pm to 4 pm during the weekdays.

The morning timings are reserved to ferry the lunch boxes to offices of customer , while the afternoon timings are reserved to. deliver empty lunch boxes to the residences of their clients.

The dabbawalahs do not deliver tiffin boxes on public holidays.

The dabbawalah's association had approached the railways with the demand to consider this request as the members struggled to get inside the trains due to crowding.

As many as 4000-4500 dabbawalah's deliver nearly 2 lakh lunch boxes through Mumbai suburban train network.

The dabbawalah association has close to 5,000 semi-literate delivery personnel, who have earned laurels from international personalities and education institutions for their error free, six sigma record.

Many a times, tempers fly high during the train journey as commuters trample the lunch boxed with the feet. The dabbawalah's are also forced to leave many a train as they find it difficult to enter the compartment with boxes carrying the tiffins delivery."