City rly station gets 2 sanitary pad vending machines

Jaswant Shetra

Tribune News Service

Ludhiana, March 6

Keeping in view the needs of women, two sanitary napkin vending machines were installed at the Ludhiana railway station in association with NGO Versatile Enterprises to benefit women visiting the railway station.

“Ludhiana has become the first railway station in Ferozepur Division to have sanitary napkin vending machines. The sanitary napkin machines have been installed to benefit the women passengers visiting the railway station,” said Abhinav Singla, Director, Ludhiana railway station.

The machines would start functioning on Women’s Day at the waiting hall for women at Platform Number 1. The machine dispenses sanitary napkins at a cost of Rs5 only and accepts only coins.

Every day, several passengers visit the local railway station and a large number of them are women. According to the railway authorities, such vending machines would be installed at Jalandhar, Amritsar and Ferozepur railway stations as well.

The machine installed at the local railway station has a capacity to store 50 napkins at once and would be refilled by a female employee of the railway station. The staff members have been provided special training for operating the machine.

“We will make sure that it is maintained well. The railways will also advertise it so that female passengers get aware of the facility and can make optimum use of it. This machine makes easy availability and accessibility of sanitary napkins for female passengers,” Singla said.