700 tonnes of flood relief items from across the state piled up at railway stations
KOCHI: Around 700 tonnes of flood relief items including perishable food, clothes, and other essentials came from different parts of the states are piled up in the South railway station at Kochi. The kind gesture of lakhs of people and organisations from regions across the state including New Delhi, Pune, Vijayawada, Ahmedabad, Chennai, Banglore, Goa, and Mumbai are waiting for proper heed from the district administration.
It has been seven days since the relief items have been pouring into the south railway station. "A bogie of a train has the capacity to carry 23 tonnes and from Tuesday onwards many bogies have arrived with flood relief items mainly addressed to the district collector. Several such bogies from different parts of the state have arrived and of which, 76 tonnes has been disposed so far," said a railway official.
Earlier the railway board director has issued a directive to each zonal railway on Tuesday to book relief materials free of cost for any station in Kerala, which may have caused the pouring of thousands of relief items required for the people hit with the floods. Any organisation or its functionaries willing to send relief materials by railways could book their consignments through district magistrate or deputy commissioner of the area without paying any charges.
According to the railway authorities, 22 parcel vans at the south railway station and 13 vans at Ponnurunni Marshalling yards are still to be unloaded. Though the porters at the station are trying hard to unload them from the vans, the extra workforce is also required. "There are about 20 tonnes of items at the North Railway station also. We have hired more workers on a daily wage basis to speed up the unloading. We have also sought the assistance of several volunteers also," said an official.
The railways have informed the district administration and the state government about the flood relief materials that have arrived at the station. The railway officials say that due to the ease of connectivity, more goods are piled up here at Ernakulam station.
Meanwhile, the district administration is taking all the measures to shift the items as soon as possible to provide for the required people. The revenue officials said that they are shifting the items addressed to the state government and district collector to the Central Warehousing Corporation. "The unloading of these many tonnes of items is not an easy affair but we are taking all the efforts to hand them over to the affected victims," said the revenue officials.