Families, passengers on Churchgate-bound train get an unpleasant shock; LCD screens in gents compartment show women parading skimpy underwear

The Churchgate-bound local that was first showing the explicit commercials on Friday (right), which were blanked out on Saturday Pics/Uday Devrukhkar and Datta Kumbhar

On Friday, commuters on a Churchgate-bound local train were shocked to see explicit ladies lingerie commercials shown on the LCD television screen mounted in the train. Though some in the hundred-odd male commuters enjoyed the slots, many amongst them with family and children were taken aghast.

MiD DAY staffer Uday Devrukhkar, who was in the train, narrates his experience:u00a0

"I boarded the Churchgate-bound local from Jogeshwari at 1.52 pm on Friday. I was happy to see the television set in my train and thought I'd get good entertainment as they were showing movie clippings and a few messages. Everyone was excited and watching it. Suddenly, I saw a ladies undergarment ad playing on it and I felt very awkward. There were lady passengers too, who I could see, were embarrassed after watching the ads. By the time I reached Lower Parel station, the ad was repeated twice. I feel this was a wrong step on the part of railway authorities. Showing these kinds of ads in a public place is shameful, because the railways are a public undertaking."

Cheap tactic

The basic idea behind installing the television sets in locals is to inform commuters about their rights and provide them with the general information. But instead of the promised information, commuters are being served crude commercials set to tinkling music, bordering on soft porn. It's quick, easy money for the railways and they are succumbing to it.

Railway activist Bhavesh Patel says, "The railways have again proved that they are only interested in making money. They do not care about the commuter's convenience. LCD screens were installed with an objective to provide general information to commuters, but I have not seen any LCD inside the local or put up in front of the ticket window at stations."

The LCD screens were inaugurated on January 6 this year. The idea was mooted by Western Railways in March 2007, on the lines of the Shatabdi Express.u00a0

Railway Yatri Sangh president Subhash Gupta clearly says that it's a cheap mode of earning money. "It seems that the railways haven taken an oath to earn money at any cost. They just want to take the credit of earning the highest profit. If they continue doing this, we will protest," he says, adding that being such a reputed and old organisation, railway authorities should monitor these things personally.