Weekend lockdown hits commuters, vendors at ISBT, railway station hard

Tribune News Service

Amritsar, August 23

The weekend lockdown is causing a lot of inconvenience to commuters, besides financial losses to vendors carrying out their businesses at the ISBT and railway station.

Shahid Madan Lal Dhingra Interstate Bus Terminal wore a deserted look as entire bus operation came to a halt. Vendors, who have been complaining of low footfall, rued the loss of two more days of business.

At the city railway station, passengers alighting from the trains were shocked to find no mode of conveyance to reach their destinations. They said they can walk on roads with the help of their tickets which would serve as the lockdown pass but it was extremely tough to carry bag and baggage along.

The daily footfall at the railway station had decreased to below 3,000 from around 50,000 before the lockdown period.

Similarly, the number of trains also came down from 130 to less than 10 per day. Popular trains daily departing and arriving at the local railway station are Flying connecting with Delhi, Frontier and Deluxe to Mumbai, Sachkhand to Nanded Sahib and Janshatabdi to Haridwar.

Vendors said they were incurring huge losses on account of the lockdown. Only a trolley and a vend are open at the local railway station as remaining 12 stalls, eight trolleys and a food plaza have been lying closed since the introduction of the lockdown. They said, “ The city railway station falls under category ‘A’ but there is no scheme from the railway to help them overcome the economic crises. Since shops remained closed their fixed expenses on shops and domestic remained intact”.