For lakhs of passengers rushing through railway stations each day, it takes only a moment’s distraction to lose their backpack, phone, or other valuables, often for good. However, at the New Delhi railway station, there is a person whom many count on to help retrieve their lost luggage: station manager Rakesh Sharma.
It was back in 2016 when the official helped a passenger — Ashish Pandey from Kanpur — find their bag with ₹5,000 in cash using their ticket details. Since then, by his own count, Mr. Sharma has helped retrieve 1,842 valuables, including bags, jewellery, documents, iPads, laptops, and even household items such as an electric kettle, earning renown. He recalls the case of the electric kettle with keen interest.
“The kettle was left behind by a doctor travelling from Delhi to Ajmer on November 9. The passenger made several phone calls to various stations. We located it on a Sunday, when my office is closed. I coordinated the exercise remotely. We conducted the verification and had the kettle delivered to the Ajmer railway station the next day,” he says.
Mr. Sharma adds, “Although this task is not part of my official duties, I take every lost and found case as a personal challenge. Reuniting passengers with their belongings gives me immense satisfaction and strengthens people’s trust in Indian Railways.”
Over the years, he has developed his own system for reuniting passengers with their lost articles — utilising passenger name record (PNR) details, contacting ticket examiners and other officials, from the Sanitation to the Engineering Department, and checking CCTV footage. At times, he takes help from social media to spread information about unclaimed articles.
The most challenging cases, he says, are the ones with no clues at all: no phone number scribbled on a bag tag, no address inside a diary, not even a name to start with. “Tracing the rightful owner then feels like throwing a stone into the sea,” says the official.
‘Patience, integrity laudable’
Earlier this year, Mr. Sharma traced a shawl, memento, and souvenir a passenger had left behind to the well-known tabla player, Pandit Durjay Bhaumik. The items were found in a Shatabdi Express coach. The official traced the belongings to the percussionist through the PNR details and coordinated their handover.
“His patience and integrity are worth mentioning,” Mr. Bhaumik told The Hindu, adding, “Even though I failed to collect them several times, he never once expressed impatience.”
On November 10, a family from Shalimar Bagh, Delhi, reported a missing iPad on RailMadad, the Indian Railways’ grievance redressal portal. The message eventually reached Mr. Sharma, who initiated a probe, contacted the train’s catering service contractor, and tracked and handed over the device to the owners within 24 hours.
However, not all cases are as simple, he says. On November 8, a maintenance worker found a laptop bag lying under a seat on the Gomti Express during a nighttime inspection. There was no phone number inside; only an IndiGo Airlines boarding pass. The station manager reached out to a former public relations officer who had contacts in the aviation sector and retrieved the contact details of the passenger, Piyush Solanki, a student from Faridabad, who had already given up hope of finding his bag and was in the process of filing an FIR when he received the call. “I was in complete disbelief,” Mr. Solanki said, expressing gratitude at finding “every single item” inside the bag intact.
693 items claimed in Oct.
In October, 693 valuables amounting to a total of ₹25.9 lakh were claimed by their owners at the New Delhi railway station.
Sometimes, retrieving a lost item can take months due to several reasons, including the item’s cost. Stricter checks are in place for more expensive items, for which claimants need to produce affidavits to prove ownership, says Himanshu Upadhyay, the Chief Public Relations Officer of Northern Railways.
He adds, “If it is an ordinary lost bag, the process is easier. However, when there is a suspicion of crime or any security angle is involved, the case entails coordination across multiple State departments.”
Mr. Sharma, who is due to retire in a few months, receives at least four calls daily from people seeking his help in locating missing items. He says he is looking forward to helping people even after retirement.
Published – November 24, 2025 01:37 am IST
