PAU offers help to curb rodent menace at Jalandhar rly station
The Jalandhar railway station staff has a new task at hand: curbing the rodent menace. As the number of rats at the station is increasing on a daily basis, the railway authorities are looking for ways to deal with the problem. Now, Punjab Agricultural University (PAU), Ludhiana, has offered to help.
The Jalandhar railway station staff has a new task at hand: curbing the rodent menace. As the number of rats at the station is increasing on a daily basis, the railway authorities are looking for ways to deal with the problem. Now, Punjab Agricultural University (PAU), Ludhiana, has offered to help.
Ferozepur divisional railway manager (DRM) Anuj Parkash said he has been receiving regular complaints from the Jalandhar staff as well as passengers about the rodent menace. Rats burrow holes under railway tracks, weakening their strength. Since the tracks are usually littered, rats find sufficient food to sustain for a long time.
Only two railway tracks (number 1 and 2) of the city railway station are cleaned on a daily basis and receive maximum load of trains. The remaining tracks are left unattended, providing a “safe haven” to rodents.
“The problem is prevalent for quite some time, and now we are coming up with various measures to deal with it,” said Anuj Parkash. He said the Ferozepur division is tying up with Punjab Agriculture University (PAU), Ludhiana, to find a solution.
Railway officials said the PAU department of zoology had approached the division a few months ago with a proposal to curb the rodent menace.
A PAU team, which has already started the work in Ludhiana circle, is expected to visit the Jalandhar railway station in the coming week.
SP Singh Bhatia, divisional traffic manager (DTM) of the Ludhiana railway station, said the pilot project in Ludhiana has already started giving good results and the division will now cover other railway stations under the project.
No funds allocated for work
Though the Ferozepur division has claimed to be taking preventive measures against the rising rat population at the Jalandhar railway station, it has not allocated any funds for it.
Officials said the work does not require any extra allocations and can be carried out with existing funds.