Construction work at railway station irks passengers

Tribune News Service

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Bathinda, December 17

Though the ongoing construction work at the city railway station is causing inconvenience to passengers, the Northern Railway hasn’t made any alternative arrangements to provide relief to them.

The space near the inquiry counter, platforms and even the benches under the shelter has been occupied by the construction material. Besides, most of the entry and exit points to reach one platform to another have been demolished.

The waiting rooms and lavatory at Platform No. 5 is of no use, because a majority of the passengers are not aware of these facilities. Moreover, these buildings are far from the entry point of the platform.

Passengers allege that though they understand that to ply electric trains, the railways have to destroy the old foot overbridge (FOB) and construct the new one, but the authorities should have made some temporary seating and overbridge arrangements for passengers’ facilitation.

Kamal Bajwa, a passenger, said, “A majority of long-route trains are arriving late at the station, but the online apps were showing the arrival of the train at the right time. When we reached the station with family we had to wait for long and things were made worse by the absence of any seating arrangements here.”

Women have to suffer as the only lavatory at the station is at Platform No. 5 and that too is far from entry point of the platform, he added.

Gajender Singh, another passenger, said, “The authorities have to make some temporary arrangements of seating and connectivity to other platforms till the construction work at the railway station is completed.”

A senior railway employee said, “Though we have waiting halls at Platform No. 5, but in view of the present circumstances we will definitely make seating arrangements at the other platforms as well.”