BHOPAL: Indian Railways will soon have ‘train captains’ on board to redress passengers’ grievances.

The railway board has issued a notification to all 16 zones to extend the service in their trains.

A train captain, who will be overall in charge of the train, will be responsible for ensuring all amenities provided by railways to the passenger, including the availability of water, cleanliness of coaches and toilets, proper working of electrical fittings such as fans, lights, mobile charging points among others.

The catering employees, ticket collectors, RPF personnel and loco-pilots will report to the train captain. Initially, the Bhopal division will start this service in only two trains — Bhopal Express (12155) and Jabalpur-Habibganj Intercity Express (22187) — as a pilot project. If this is successful, all trains will soon have a captain. The train captain service will begin in the next 10 days, said senior divisional commercial manager (SDCM), Vinod Tamori .

Divisional railway manager, Shobhan Chaudhary told TOI that no new post will be created for the new service. “Every train has a team of 5 ticket collectors. The senior-most ticket collector will act as the train captain,” he said.

SDCM Tamori said, “A number will be allotted to the train captain, which will be displayed on reservation charts pasted outside the train coach. If the project is successful, we will begin displaying the number inside the coaches as well.”

“The project will come into effect in 10 days as the division is trying to complete the formalities. Once launched, we will make an arrangement so that a few railway employees are appointed as the captain so that we do not have transfer different people continuously.

Also, the employees appointed for the new role will be provided with particular training, teaching them skills to handle passengers and solve their problems,” said Tamori.

“As of now there is no special uniform for the captain, but they will be given with a special batch and a mobile phone with a special mobile number,” he said.

