Post News Network
Bhubaneswar, June 1: East Coast Eailway’s (ECoR) claims of augmenting extra coaches to meet the summer rush seem to have toppled, going by the heavy rush of passengers in unreserved coaches. It is a daunting task for these passengers to even get enough space to stand inside the general coaches, let alone getting seats.
ECoR claimed in February that it would create an additional 1.3 lakh seats to ensure ‘comfortable’ travel for passengers during the summer in all major trains. But the claim has proved to be a farce, as people travelling in unreserved compartment are forced to undertake their journey under miserable conditions.
The summer rush has compounded the woes of passengers who are finding it next to impossible to get seats aboard long-distance trains bound to Mumbai, New Delhi, Pune, Patna and Ahmedabad. Most of these passengers are either from poor economic backgrounds or are those who are forced to embark on a long journey at short notice.
Foreseeing the heavy rush of passengers, the Railways had issued instructions to Railway Police Force (RPF) personnel to introduce a queue system at the unreserved ticketing counters but little has been done in this regard.
Such is the heavy summer rush that at least 700 passengers can be found aboard a general coach that has a seating capacity of only up to 300 passengers.
It was also found that the doors of the unreserved coaches remain open when they are sent from the maintenance yard to the platform, resulting in a mad scramble for seats among the passengers, sometimes leading to people getting hurt.
Trains like Orissa Sampark Kranti, Konark, Nandankanan, Purushottam, Utkal, Neelanchal, Puri-Lokmanya Tilak Terminus, Puri-Ahmedabad, and Bhubaneswar-Patna expresses are running jam-packed. “Forget about general class passengers, there are long waiting lists even in sleeper and AC three/two tier coaches. The condition is really bad as coaches are less while the number of passengers continues to swell,” said Pranab Mohanty, a passenger.
Another passenger who managed to enter a general coach of the Mumbai-bound Konark express after a lot of struggle blamed the railway authorities for not increasing the number of unreserved coaches. “Poor passengers like us do not have any choice but to travel via unreserved class. Some of the passengers are forced to travel inside toilets of general class carriages as it is impossible for us to stand for the entire course of a 48-hour-long journey,” said Ram Narayan, a passenger going to Mumbai.
An ECoR official at the city railway station requesting anonymity admitted that there is huge scarcity of all types of coaches, particularly unreserved ones.
