Poor cloak room facility at rly station irks passengers

Tribune News Service

Bathinda, November 16

Passengers boarding trains from the railway station here are finding it difficult to manage their luggage in the absence of proper cloak room facility and shortage of porters.

The existing cloak room is located around 800 metres from the inquiry counter, which is not easily accessible to passengers. Besides, the inadequate number of coolies is also adding to their woes.

According to sources, on an average, only 100 to 150 passengers avail the cloakroom facility in a month while nearly 20,000 passengers visit the station every day. More passengers could have used the facility had it been situated near the platform, inquiry office or the main gate.

Vishal Kumar, a passenger, said, “I think this is the only junction in the country where people hire rickshaw at a cost of Rs 20 to reach the cloak room. Besides, most of the time passengers return without depositing their luggage due the inadequate space in the cloak room.”

Narender Joshi, another passenger, said, “Due to inadequate number of porters we have to pay the rickshaw pullers for taking us to the cloak room. It is not that only passengers are losing business, the railway would also have earned more through the cloakroom, had the facility been located near the main gate or the platform.”

A senior railway employee, who did not wish to be quoted, said, “Owing to complaints of passengers regarding cloak room services, we have already sent an application to the higher authorities, but to no avail.”

On shortage of porters, he said, “There are six coolies in the railway station and this strength is more than enough considering the passengers’ approach. Most of the passengers do not like to give money to the coolies and often carry their luggage themselves.”