Apart from disrupting local train services and causing massive inconvenience to commuters, the fire in a signal panel at Kurla also took a toll on dabbawala services in the city. Several office-goers, students and workers had to forego their tiffins on Wednesday, as the dabbawalas could not deliver them due to the train chaos.
Dabbawalas deliver fresh home-cooked food across the city through their well-organised network. However, the entire tiffin supply chain in the suburbs on central railway track was heavily affected.
Sopan Mare, president of Mumbai Tiffin Box Suppliers Association, said, “Though we managed to deliver tiffins to the western suburbs and island city, our supply in the eastern suburbs was completely disrupted. About 20 per cent of our services were affected on Wednesday.”
According to Mr Mare, nearly 40,000 tiffins in central suburbs like Bhandup, Thane, Dombivali, Kalyan could not be delivered. “Around 400-500 members of our association reside in central suburbs, who could not attend to their duties due to the train issue.”
The Mumbai Tiffin Box Suppliers Association supplies more than 1.5 lakh dabbas across the city. Dabbawalas usually commute by local trains to ferry dabbas to their clients.
Mr Mare remained non-committal about tiffin services resuming to regular service from Thursday. “We have heard that the train problems are going to continue for next couple of days. If trains are normal, we will supply the tiffins, otherwise we won’t be able to,” he said.