Railway coaches go missing from Rajdhani Express, other trains at Ranchi depot; division board in a fix

The next time you are about to board a train, do not be surprised if you see fewer coaches than usual. Several coaches of new trains running between New Delhi and Ranchi have disappeared from the yard of the Ranchi Railway Division, and authorities have no clue about it, according to reports.The coaches reported missing were part of premium trains such as the Rajdhani Express and Sampark Kranti Express, India Today reported. Authorities at the Ranchi division of Indian Railways are wondering how this act could have been pulled off, suspecting the hand of an organised gang behind these thefts.[caption id="attachment_4308693" align="alignleft" width="380"] Representational image. AFP.[/caption]To compensate for the missing bogies, the Railways is adding old ones to the trains, according to Dainik Jagran. The Ranchi Railway Board has also written to the senior divisional operating manager of Northern Railways about the missing coaches.However, a senior official of the Ranchi Railway Division told The Economic Times that the coaches were not missing. "We have marked the coaches being used in our division with numbers. The coaches are expected to be in use with the Northern division. South Eastern Railways has written to Northern Railways to return the AC coaches. We expect to get them soon," the official was quoted as saying.While this could be the first time that entire bogies have been reported missing, thefts are not uncommon in trains and at railway stations. According to the National Crime Records Bureau, around 11 lakh cases of theft were reported in 2016, up from 9.42 lakh cases in 2015. Maharashtra saw the highest number of such thefts at nearly two lakh, followed by Uttar Pradesh at 1.24 lakh cases.Tubelights, fans, hand towels and blankets from air-conditioned coaches are generally the things that go missing (read: stolen) from the coaches. Stainless steel dustbins were also added to this list a few months ago, after authorities introduced them in coaches so non-biodegradable trash can be disposed separately in bio toilets.In 2016-17, the Bilaspur coaching depot in Chhattisgarh, which has 817 bio toilets, received complaints of 3,601 missing steel dustbins, while the Sealdah coaching depot in West Bengal reported 3,536 complaints of missing dustbins from its 1,304 bio toilets in 26 trains.