South Western Railway considers airport-like curbs at station

BENGALURU: The country's first centralised AC railway terminal, built at a cost of Rs 314 crore, is a shocking picture of civic sense in a shambles, with its littered platforms, broken sliding doors, and betel juice-stained walls.
Operational only since June 2022, the state-of-the-art facility has been turned embarrassingly dirty by unruly passengers, forcing South Western Railway (SWR) to consider introducing strict airport-like restrictions. There are plans to shift ticketing counters from the concourse to outside the facility and, like in airports, allow passengers into the terminal only four hours before journey.

Right now, according to officials, many passengers arrive as early as 48 hours before their trains and turn the terminal into their makeshift home. SWR attributes the dirtying of the terminal to this growing practice and doesn't wish to encourage it. "There are passengers who spend a couple of days at the terminal, filling sofas with their heavy luggage, taking showers, eating their meals and sleeping overnight before boarding their trains," said an SWR official. "We can't stop them right now since the ticket counter is inside the terminal."
Stained & cracked
At present, SWR operates around 30 pairs of trains, of which the majority run towards the northern and eastern parts of the country, including Patna, Agartala, Howrah, Tatanagar, Danapur, Patliputra, Muzaffarpur, Hatia, etc. In addition to the dirt, litter and stains, STOI found that two sliding doors at the terminal had suffered cracks.
"The proposal is to implement a 'four-hours-before-departure' rule between 6am and 10pm (morning hours)," said the official. "But we cannot impose any restrictions between 10pm and 6am (night hours) since it might be tough for passengers from faraway locations to reach here. Platform tickets are valid for two hours from the time of issuance. We are still in discussions and the railway board will arrive at a final call," the official said.
"The first step is to shift the ticket counters outside the terminal. This will reduce crowding and littering inside. Most passengers don't know how to use the facilities at the station. We've been trying to create awareness among them to use dustbins but they're largely a floating crowd, not regular passengers. Many are daily-wage migrant workers," he said.
On complaints of errant autorickshaw drivers demanding extra from passengers and inadequate number of BMTC buses at Sir MV terminal, another official said: "We will soon set up a prepaid auto counter at the station."