Remember those weighing machines at railway stations? They are all to be removed in Maharashtra

Before the government started its drive to revamp Indian railway stations, there were two things every passenger experienced at a station - a. The delayed arrival of trains. b. Travellers would, at some point, head over to the brightly lit weighing machine. But times have changed and so have our railway stations. Now, fewer trains arrive late and no one heads to the weighing machines anymore.

Owing to a steep decline in usage, Indian Railways has decided to remove these weighing machines from all the railway stations across Maharashtra.

These machines were introduced across railway stations in late 1950s and have been huge attractions ever since. They were equipped with the choicest of lights, spinning wheels and music. Not only young passengers, they would attract aged travellers as well.

Passengers who wanted to check their weight only had to stand on the machine and insert a coin. The machine would then issue a small card with the user's weight written on it. These cards would at times feature the images of Bollywood stars, or if you were especially lucky - a motivational message.

For most part, this entire unparalleled experience would cost an anna or 25 paise. Even up till recently, it would cost Rs 2.

According to officials, these machines were outsourced and the tickets were supplied by printing presses owned by the Indian Railways in Mumbai's Byculla and Kolkata. After the introduction of digital weighing scales, fewer people used them, forcing the national transporter to discontinue the machines. A Western Railways official said that the removal of these machines started in 2013 after they discovered that passengers were not using them anymore.

The daily mentioned that during a cleanliness drive in September, the Central Railways removed these machines completely. Not only these machines, other equipment such as old automatic ticket vending machines (ATVM) and old furniture that were not being used have also been discarded by the Indian Railways.

(Edited by Anwesha Madhukalya)