CHENNAI:Absence of food stalls, additional toilet facilities and water-vending machines has been subjecting long-distance travellers to an ordeal at the Perambur station from where six long-distance weekly trains were diverted recently.
Aiming to decongest the Chennai Central station and reduce the travelling time of long-distance trains, the Railways diverted five trains via Perambur, bypassing Chennai Central from March 5.The trains are Thiruvananthapuram-Shalimar-Thiruvananthapuram bi-weekly express, Silachar-Thiruvananthapuram weekly express, Ernakulam-Patna-Ernakulam bi-weekly express, Yesvantpur-Muzaffarapur-Yesvantpur weekly express, Bengaluru Cantonment-Guwahati-Bengaluru Cantonment tri-weekly express and Thiruvananthapuram-Guwahati-Thiruvananthapuram weekly express. Trains from Guwahati, Patna and Shalimar have a stoppage for every three hours.But they have to travel for about six to seven hours before reaching Perambur, as these trains have a last stoppage at Vijayawada or Ongole.
Though the trains are provided with a pantry car facility, absence of food stalls at the stations has put passengers to hardship. “The last stop of the train was Vijayawada. We could not eat the food sold in the pantry car as it was in bad taste. I could not feed my children from Vijayawada. When the train reached Perambur, it was stopped only for two minutes. The platform has no food stalls either,” said Rakesh, a traveller in Silachar Express.
The platforms 2 and 3 which receive trains towards Arakkonam have no food stalls, while at the platform 1 where the passengers board the north-bound trains needs toilet facilities.Except Shalimar Express, all weekly trains arrive at Perambur between 3 am and 5 am, where the toilet at platform 1 remains closed. The small food stall also hardly helps the passengers.
“We arrived at 2.30 am. Both Guwahati-bound trains were scheduled before 6 am and there was no toilet facility in the station at that time. The toilet at platform 1 remained closed and we were told it would be functional only after 10 am,” said another passenger Gowrav.
With the diversion of trains, the station handles about 3,000 passengers additionally. However, the Railways could not provide additional amenities at the Perambur station yet.When contacted, Southern Railway officials said a proposal to set up additional food stalls and toilets had been sent and it was being processed. “The station will improve in a few months,” added the officer.