Andhra Pradesh - Vijayawada   

Railway reservation counters sans timetables Commuters in the dark

G. Ravikiran

Commuters facing inconvenience to get timings of trains Absence of timetable at railway reservation counters

VIJAYAWADA: Rail commuters are facing inconvenience due to absence of some of the required facilities at the reservation counters functioning under the Passenger Reservation System (PRS) of the South Central Railway (SCR) in the city. Timetables are not available for a clear public view at the reservation counters located at Chandramoulipuram near Benz Circle, STPM office, Bhavanipuram and Tarapet, which is a violation of Section 49 of the Indian Railway Act.

The Act makes it mandatory on the part of the railway officials to display a timetable in a conspicuous and accessible place at every railway station. The timetable should be in Hindi or English and also in the regional language commonly in use in the area, and it should contain timings of arrival and departure of all trains passing through the local station. Also, a copy of the timetable should be kept at every location where tickets are issued to passengers. This means that the railway authorities will have to display the timetables at the reservation counters also. But a visit to the reservation counter at Benz Circle presents a clear picture of how people are facing hardship to find out the timings of trains. Most people try to elicit information from fellow visitors to the counters. Sometimes, the railway personnel manning the counters find it tough to answer queries of the passengers about train timings. Non-availability of timetables is also making the passengers unaware of introduction of new trains.

Flexi-boards

When the issue was brought to the notice of Additional Divisional Railway Manager (Vijayawada Division) M. Sarjana Rao on Monday, he admitted that the timetables would necessarily have to be displayed at all reservation counters. "We have tried flexi-boards at Machilipatnam and found them useful. We will fix the boards by Wednesday," he said.

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