Trains to get a coat of Mithila paint
2 min readPatna: If you see a large-sized Mithila painting rushing into Patna in the near future, it could possibly be the Gareeb Rath Express.
Chairman Railway Board (CRB) Ashwani Lohani gave the go-ahead for this while visiting a railways photo exhibition at Gyan Bhavan on Friday. He seemed impressed by the exhibition which showcased 500 rare photos from the Indian Railways, dating back to April 16, 1853 – when the first train chugged off from Borivali (Mumbai) to Thane.
“You do one thing. Paint all coaches, including the engine, with Mithila paintings,” Lohani told an official at a stall showcasing the contribution of Mithila paintings to the India Railways. Lohani was welcomed with a garland made of makhana (gorgon nut) and the traditional paag (headgear).
Photo exhibition apart, there were 53 other stalls displaying safety equipment among other things.
Lohani was so impressed that he asked East Central Railway (ECR) chief public relations officer (CPRO) Rajesh Kumar to organise a similar exhibition in Delhi. Seeing a paintingof a train, from a children’s painting competition organised recently, having a bullet nose curve, Lohani asked Danapur divisional railway manager (DRM) Ranjan Prakash Thakur to paste a painting of a bullet train beside it to showcase the journey from bullet nose to bullet train. Lohani’s eyes stopped at a photograph of the ECR headquarters in Hajipur taken from a drone. ECR general manager Lalit Chandra Trivedi said the headquarters resembles the Dal Lake Garden in Kashmir. The CRB also appreciated photographs of Mahatma Gandhi taken in 1934 when he had visited Darbhanga railway station after a major earthquake hit the Nepal-Bihar region.
Impressed by the exhibition, Lohani asked the ECR general manager to create a virtual museum to showcase things related to the railways. “It should be like wall on which one can show what the railway means to the people of India,” Lohani said. “Depict everything, whatever you are showing me here. It can be an electronic display, maybe on a large screen. Just work on it.”
He also visited the Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation Limited (IRCTC) stall where bio-degradable plates and bowl were on display. The official at the counter said these would soon be available on all premium trains.
Courtesy: The Telegraph
