Ludhiana: With a few trains running again between Ludhiana and other destinations, some activity is being witnessed at the railway station again. Majority of rush is during the morning hours, when right from 5.30am the trains for Delhi start.
On Monday, some of the major trains which halted here included 22440 Vande Bharat Express, 02904 Amritsar-Mumbai Central , 04650 Amritsar-Jay Nagar, 02026 Amritsar-Nagpur and 02926 Amritsar-Bandra Terminus. Meanwhile, with the entire operations still not back to normal after the lockdown, followed by the ongoing farmers’ agitation, the regular passengers and businessmen are facing several problems at the railway station.
The biggest problem being faced by the people is the ban on entry of vehicles into the railway station from the old city side, where access to platform 1 is available. Sharing more information about this problem, city resident and social activist Kimti Rawal, said, “In big problem for the passengers, both entry and exit to the railway station for vehicles has been blocked and as a result the passengers have to alight on the main road and have to carry their luggage all the way to the platform. Earlier, private and public transport was allowed to enter the station and passengers used to get off either near the current reservation window or the main entry to the platform number 1.”
Rawal added that, “This is nothing less than a nightmare for passengers who have excess luggage as they struggle to make it to the platforms because no one else except for the passenger is allowed to enter the railway station. Moreover, coolies too are mostly available only near the platform. The entry blockage has also led to a big issue of parking of the vehicles of the persons coming to pick up their friends, family or associates as the main road is very congested and swarmed with all types of vehicles and pedestrians. The railways must do something to resolve this issue at the earliest.”
Meanwhile, giving insight on why the decision to block the entry and exit of the railway station has been taken, Tarun Kumar, station director, Ludhiana, said, “This decision has been taken to facilitate screening and ticket checking as per the existing guidelines. Because currently, even for entry to the platforms a single entry is open in order to adhere to the guidelines. Also, no other person except those having confirmed tickets are allowed to enter the railway station.”
In another problem being faced by the passengers is the non-operation of majority of vends on the station. According to city businessman, Sukhjit Singh, “Only a handful of vends on platform number 1 and 2 are operational right now, due to which there is very limited availability of tea, mineral water, eatables, etc. Moreover, unlike earlier times when even there were vendors selling general items like locks, toiletries, etc., they too are missing from the station now.”
Explaining the reason for the situation, Ramesh Chand, a vendor said, “Earlier, there was lockdown and hardly any people were travelling on trains, but since October when the farmers’ agitation started in Punjab all trains remained cancelled and even now only handful of these are running and very less percentage of passengers are travelling. So, in such a situation it is impossible for every vendor to earn enough to sustain his living expenditures, because of which some of them have still not resumed their operations. They will return only when the situation returns to normal.”
With majority of superfast trains, including Shatabadi, Rajdhani, Sampark Kranti, etc. still remaining cancelled, residents, especially businessmen, are demanding that these be resumed at the earliest.
According to Gurwinder Chabra, a businessman, “The only superfast train running at this moment via Ludhiana is Vande Bharat Express, but its time does not suits everyone. Earlier, after almost every 2-3 hours there was a superfast train like Shatabadi, Shan-e-Punjab, Rajdhani, Duronto, etc. The railways, central and state governments must chalk out a plan to resume these trains at the earliest as in the wake of non-reliability of air service from Ludhaina and no hope of road route to Delhi being cleared any time soon, these trains will prove to be a blessing not only for Ludhiana, but other neighbouring cities too.”