Post News Network
Bhubaneswar, May 21: The misery of passengers because of the searing heat has been compounded by the defunct air-conditioners at the computerised reservation centre (CRC) and the unreserved ticketing system (UTS) complex.
The woes of the thousands of passengers who visit these ticketing centres every day are compounded by the dearth of counters, as well as the poor levels of cleanliness and defunct information display LCD television sets.
There are two ticketing centres at Bhubaneswar railway station — one for reserved tickets and another for unreserved ones for short-distance trains such as inter-city and passenger trains. People queuing up at the CRC and UTS centres for tickets have to suffer because of the defunct ACs and the unregulated crowd inside the centres.
Around 3,500 people turn up at the CRC to get reserved tickets while the UTS has a daily footfall of over 15,000. However, the East Coast Railway (ECoR) has not taken any step to redress the grievances of passengers.
Many people even sit inside the ticketing centres only to save themselves from scorching summer as the concourse area lacks fans.
Several people along with their children sit at the ticketing centres beneath the fans, causing inconvenience to bona fide passengers queuing up to get tickets, said a passenger, Preetinanda Samantray.
“The UTS complex is stinking because of the lack of cleanliness and excessive crowd. Even male passengers are queuing up in female counters to get unreserved tickets as other counters usually remain overcrowded,” said Pradipta Baliyarsingh, a Maharishi College student.
An official at the station held people responsible for the lack of cleanliness. “If thousands of passengers throng the station, the premises would definitely become dirty,” he said.
ECoR Khurda Road senior divisional commercial manager HL Luwang Thursday said he was not aware about dysfunctional ACs at both the ticketing centres and would inquire into the matter. Luwang said six counters are sufficient to issue reserved tickets to passengers, when asked why only six out of 12 counters are open for the public at the CRC.
