Southern Railway is under fire for doing precious little to improve passenger amenities at the Ernakulam Town Railway Station.
Advertisements on the premises and platforms block the view of many important direction boards, including that of the ticket-booking counters. On whatever little space is left, there are huge white boards with contact numbers seeking more advertisements.
The waiting rooms for men and women do not have sufficient number of chairs while some of the toilets and wash basins within are damaged.
Senior Railway officials said that inadequate and damaged passenger amenities at the Ernakulam Town and Junction stations were brought to the notice of Thiruvananthapuram Divisional Railway Manager Prakash Bhutani during his recent visit.
The president of the Ernakulam North (Town) Vikasana Samithi, K. Radhakrishnan, said that the samithi had held a series of protests and submitted memoranda to high-ranking officials, demanding better amenities at the station. “The road leading to the eastern entry is too narrow and crammed, owing to which brawls involving commuters and autorickshaw drivers are common. The congested entry leaves the ticket counter there under-utilised.”
The master plan prepared when O. Rajagopal was Minister of State for Railways to widen the road leading to the eastern entry had not been realised yet, he said. The work on an escalator on platform two was also pending for about a year, while the promise to install bio-toilets was hanging fire.
The platform was ill lit and did not have drinking water supply, Mr. Radhakrishnan said.
Seats and fans too fall short of demand at the platforms, while the electronic board displaying train timings and platform numbers is dysfunctional.
The president of one of the 13 residents’ associations which fall under SRM Road Residents Associations’ Aikyavedi, P.D. Ramesh Babu, said that a police aid post and parking area for vehicles must be readied at the eastern entry. Encroachments on the road must be removed.
A senior official of the commercial wing said that passenger amenities at the station would be improved within six months.
