Railway stops sale of its branded bottled water

Following media reports critical of the quality of Bangladesh Railway's (BR) bottled water brand "Rail Pani", the railway authority has decided to stop selling the product for the time being.

In a press release issued yesterday, the Railways Ministry said they have sent samples of the water to Buet and Bangladesh Standard and Testing Institution (BSTI) for testing and stopped selling the water. Marketing for the band will be resumed after test results return.

The ministry said BR has recently signed a contract with Shyamoli Food and Beverage Pvt Ltd after an open tender to introduce the "Rail Pani" brand, said the press release.

But some media organisations are running fabricated and ill-motivated reports (against the brand) without proper verification of information, the press release read.

Shyamoli Food's "Shyamoli Drinking Water" is a highly used bottled-water brand certified by both both Buet and BSTI, and the same water was going to be rebranded as "Rail Pani", the document said, claiming that the fact that there has not been any allegations against Shyamoli Water goes to show that the reports blasting "Rail Pani" are ill-motivated.

On August 13, BR and Shyamoli Food and Beverage signed the agreement on behalf of their respective organisations.