Railways to renew efforts to ease passengers8217; woes 8212; Agrawal

Referring to the concern expressed by BYK members about the extension of the Nagpur-Gondwana Express to Bhusaval for two days in a week, Agrawal said the Railways will study the viability of the new route for six months before taking a final decision.

Referring to the alleged rudeness of Railway officials to the general public, especially by those manning the Railway enquiry counter, Agrawal said officials found misbehaving with the public will be punished. 8220;We are most receptive to suggestions for improvements in the functioning of Railway officials, made by individuals or Yatri Kendras,8221; he said.

Talking about alleged Railway Police misbehaviour with passengers, Agrawal said the police comes under the State Government and therefore Railways have no direct control over them. He, however, agreed that they must be there to protect passengers and not cause them any undue harassment. On his part he promised to look into the matter.

He praised the Railway time-table brought out by the BYK. With reference to the demand of the Yatri Kendra for starting a new direct Nagpur-Indore train, Agrawal said right now there was no such plan to start this train, but it could be considered. He appealed to the BYK and the media to generate awareness against ticket-less travelling. Financial constraints are the main hurdle in the implementation of Railway plan to provide better facilities to the public, he said.

In his speech T Hussain, Divisional Commercial Manager of South Eastern Railway said in many cases better services have been provided by the Railways on demand of the Yatri Kendras. Special reservation facilities have also been provided at Gondia.

Hussain said the Railway officials must travel incognito in second class compartments to understand the problems and difficulties of passengers. The new BYK Railway time-table was released by Harish Adyalkar, Secretary, Lohiya Adhyayan Kendra.

Addressing the gathering Basant Kumar Shukla, Secretary, BYK, said there is no justification for the extension of the Nagpur-Gondwana train route to Bhusaval for two days in a week. When the train was launched it was meant to exclusively run on the Nagpur-Delhi route, but, ever since, politicians have been interfering with the original route and destination.

Shukla also demanded an exclusive Nagpur-Indore train keeping in mind the good flow of passengers on that route. He also demanded addition of AC coaches in the Howrah-Kurla Express.

In his speech Dr Om Prakash Mishra demanded a Nagpur-Bhusaval train at 10 pm instead of the present Wardha-Bhusaval train at midnight. This would ease passenger traffic from Nagpur, he said.