Mangalore : Ticketing Woes of Passengers- Railway Loses Millions
Pics: Aneesh Balan
By Veekshitha Arasa
Daijiworld Media Network
Mangalore, May 4: The woes of people purchasing tickets at the Mangalore Central Railway Station seem to be increasing day by day. The helpless passengers are left with no option but wait in a long queue for hours together.
A huge rush with hardly any space to even move around is the common sight at the railway station here. The authorities concerned seem to be least bothered about constant frets faced by people while booking tickets.
The major concern is the shortage of staff at the booking counter. Due to non-availability of workers only three out of four counters are currently functioning. At an important counter, where at least 15 workers are a necessity, only 11 are discharging their duties.
Ironically, the strength of workers at the parcel department is much higher compared to the booking counter. Whether those workers are given additional incentives remains a question.
The issue not just concerns passengers, but in fact is causing a major blow to the railway department. Their sheer negligence is costing them a loss of approximately Rs 10 million (Rs 1 crore ) per month. Many passengers travel without tickets due to the poor service at the booking counter. Yet nothing has been done about it.
As many as 10,000 passengers travel via train from Mangalore per day. Since it’s the vacation time, the number has raised to 15,000. Students are not able to get the ticket on time. “The queue at the Railway Station here is really annoying. I had to wait for more than an hour to get my tickets”, says Shivani Acharya who recently traveled from Mangalore to Mumbai.
The number of death or fatal injuries due to fall from train are also on rise in the recent past and we cannot rule out the problem of ticket booking as one of the cause. The heavy rush in the train also results in frequent quarrel between the police officials and the passengers.
According to department sources, the railway divisional office at Palakkad has extra 15 commercial clerks. The railway authorities can at least post a few of them to Mangalore station and solve the problem to some extent. Why is it not being done so far is also a matter of suspicion.
Converting Mangalore railway station into international standard as assured in the last budget session seems very unlikely considering the present situation.