More booking counters to come up at stations

With less than a fortnight to go before the railway budget, it is obvious that the Bangalore East Railway Station is in grave need of some urgent attention.

More booking counters to come up at stations

With less than a fortnight to go before the railway budget, it is obvious that the Bangalore East Railway Station is in grave need of some urgent attention. Passengers wishing to reserve or cancel tickets are unable to find a place to fill in the forms and end up standing at the booking counter next to persons booking tickets, thereby facing much opposition from and counter staff alike.

No elbow room: Passengers end up standing at the booking counter
next to persons currently booking tickets, thereby facing much opposition
from other travellers. Pic/Madhusudan maney

Senior Divisional Commercial Manager, South Western Railways, Praveen Pandey said, "It's just a matter of time before this will be resolved since the new building will open by March. We will have new Passenger Reservation System (PRS) counters in the new premises. At first, two or three PRS will be operative, and later, depending on the crowd we will decide to operate all five."

Railway authorities have not made a single desk available to passengers where they can fill in reservation/cancellation forms and the long-promised new reservation centre is yet to see the light of the day. Following several reader complaints, MiD DAY conducted a spot check and found out what people at the station had to say.

"I come here often and have noticed that there has been no change since several years and commuters are still put through difficulties when filling in reservation forms. I stay close by and I pick up a few forms and take them home so that whenever I need to book tickets, I can fill up the forms there," said S Swaminathan, a regular traveller .

Several people were observed jostling for space near the window to fill in forms since that seemed like the only place they could find a flat surface that served as a table to write on. But persons booking tickets and the reservation clerk appeared to be getting disturbed since the place was crammed with people milling around the window.