Angered by poor facilities, train passengers go on strike in Vijayawada

The special train on ‘Dakshin Bharat Darshan’, being organised by the IRCTC was stopped at Vijayawada Railway Station on Friday by officials to fix certain problems.
Passengers staging a protest at Vijayawada Railway Station on Friday
Passengers staging a protest at Vijayawada Railway Station on Friday

VIJAYAWADA: The passengers on pilgrimage to temples in South India seemed to have started off on the wrong foot. The special train on ‘Dakshin Bharat Darshan’, being organised by the Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC) was stopped at Vijayawada Railway Station on Friday by officials to fix certain problems in one of the compartments forcing the 850-odd passengers to wait for four excruciating hours. The train carrying the passengers started at 11 pm at Secunderabad Railway Station on Thursday night for the eight-day trip. Had the railway staff at the Secunderabad station done their job diligently, the passengers would not have had to go through the hardship, said a passenger. 
The facilities in the BD-11 compartment, were much in need of maintenance. Sanitation was in shambles, and lights and fans were dysfunctional. 

Admitting the fact, railway officials here said they had to stop the train and carry out necessary repairs following complaints from the passengers in the compartment. After the train reached Vijayawada, the angry passengers approached the officials and resorted to a protest demonstration at the station over poor facilities. Only then the officials woke up and got down to rectify things. The four hours the railway staff took to restore facilities proved too much for the passengers who got into argument with officials. 

a passenger T Bhavani showing the brochure which lists out
facilities offered for Dakshin Bharat Darshan | P Ravindra Babu

Finally, the train, which was to depart at 7:30 am left the station at 11:45 am after the repairs.
“This is Swachh Bharat! Come and see how dirty are the compartments,” said one of the passengers in a sarcastic tone. Others questioned the commitment of the Union government to ‘Swachh Bharat’ if the poor conditions in the train compartments were any indication.“We undertook this trip with great expectations. But within hours after boarding the train, we realised how wrong we were. We booked our seat in the compartment no. 11. You ask me what is not wrong? Everything. It seems officials used a discarded compartment for the trip,” another woman passenger complained bitterly.

When contacted, SCR officials admitted their fault and said operations department failed to inspect the compartment prior to the journey. “The compartment came from other regions and was not inspected thoroughly. We will ensure this kind of incidents never happen in future,” said Uma Shankar Kumar, an official from SCR -Secunderabad.The eight-day ‘Dakshin Bharat Darshan’ covers places like Tiruchirappally, Kanyakumari, Madurai, Rameswaram, Kanchi and other temples in the south. 

Travel woes
The special train on ‘Dakshin Bharat Darshan’, being organised by the IRCTC was stopped at Vijayawada Railway Station on Friday by officials to fix certain problems in one of the compartments forcing the 850-odd passengers to wait for four excruciating hours
After the train reached Vijayawada, the angry passengers approached the officials and resorted to a protest demonstration at the  station over poor facilities

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