CHENNAI: Passengers Reservation System (PRS) centres located away from railway stations in different parts of the city are raking in good revenue for the railways. However, some of these centres lack basic facilities such as seating and drinking water for people waiting in queues to book tickets.
It is a lot convenient for passengers to book tickets from these counters rather than going all the way to the railway stations.There are eight PRS centres in the city — Mahabalipuram, Porur, Chennai Metropolitan Bus Terminus (CMBT), ICF, Anna Nagar, Besant Nagar, Madras High Court and MLA hostel. City Express visited the last six centres and found that the one at CMBT had no separate counter for enquiry and enough seats. Only one of the two counters was functioning. The rest of the reservation centres are well-maintained, but the railways has not put all the counters to use. At the ICF reservation centre, out of the four counters, only three are functioning. At the Anna Nagar centre, of the eight counters only six are operational. However, it has a computerised enquiry system, train information display and separate queue for senior citizens.
Also, first preference is given to the differenty abled here. This reservation centre could serve as a model to the other ones.
At the railway reservation centre at the CMBT, there are serpentine queues during tatkal bookings and for special trains, complain passengers. The lone counter staff is not able to handle the rush. Murugan, who was waiting to book a ticket at the centre told CE: “I had to wait for more than 40 minutes in the queue to book a ticket to Kanyakumari last month. For people from Saligramam, Virugambakkam, Vadapalani, Nesapakkam, KK Nagar, Maduravoyal and Arumbakkam, this is the nearest centre. This causes people to crowd and jostle with the sea of bus passengers at the terminal. The centre is short-staffed and the lack of an enquiry counter compounds the problem.”The scene at the Besant Nagar centre was, however, different. Isantiago (64), a senior citizen, who regularly books tickets here said that the campus is maintained neatly. There is a separate counter for senior citizens. The centre is equipped with adequate seats, drinking water and enquiry facilities, he added.
According to a senior official of Southern Railways, Chennai Division, the number of applications recorded every day is 250 to 300 at CMBT, 500 to 600 at Besant Nagar, 50 to 100 at the Madras HC and MLA hostel, 950 to 1,000 at Anna Nagar and 650 to 700 at ICF.
This number might vary during festival and vacation time. The railways is facing manpower shortage due to which a few of the counters do not function, he said, adding that once vacancies are filled, these will be operational.
Power problem hits reservations on tuesday
Passenger reservation system (PRS) counters across Chennai were affected for more than an hour due to power problems on Tuesday morning.
According to a source, a problem with the Uninterrupted Power Supply (UPS) at Moore Market Complex (MMC) reservation counters caused the problem at 10.30 am which led to reservation being suspended. Scores of passengers had assembled at more than 10 counters on the first floor of the complex for booking tatkal tickets, the window for which opens at 10 am everyday.
At the Thirumailai MRTS station, where there are about six counters, 80 people were waiting patiently after learning that it was a technical issue about which nothing could be done. “Normally if the booking clerks delay the process, the public gets angry, but today since it was a technical issue, they were calm and waited till the systems resumed,” an official at the station said.