With tourist season and Char Dham Yatra on, the railway station in Haridwar - the starting point of the much-touted yatra and the celebrated pilgrim centre where people from across the country and abroad throng around round the year - presents a grim picture of utter neglect. Notably, the station that falls under Northern Railway Division has nine platforms, in all, through which 70 pairs of trains cross daily. Platform No. 3 is the longest one having a length of 657 metre.
Around 12,000 passengers are recorded outbound and inbound officially on a single day, including the foreign tourists. There are only nine single-bedded retiring rooms there with only one of them air-conditioned. A passenger Promila Malik (36), travelling with first class ticket, was found waiting outside the retiring hall. The first class retiring hall that has a seat capacity for thirty persons was found overcrowded. Some of them were found sleeping. No attendant was there to ensure their security.
She said that taking advantage of no attendant standing guard, many, sans ticket, sneak in to sleep. The waiting hall meant for the passengers with sleeper class tickets presents the same sad picture. It has a seat capacity for 15 persons. Most of the benches are broken. It was also found crammed. A separate waiting hall for lady passengers is also there on the first floor. However, located in a corner on the first floor, the lady passengers steer clear of it and choose to sit on the benches of the platforms instead.
There are seventy benches each with a capacity of four in all the nine platforms of the station. There are six water coolers for the nine platforms. Drinking water is scarce in most of them. One or two of the water coolers remain non-functional during the summer. As per the official data collected from Haridwar railway station, average 850 passengers per day purchase unreserved tickets and 550 passengers reserved tickets, making the total income of Rs3,15,000 per day.
However, in 2014-15, there has been a considerable decline in passenger strength and thus a dip in per day income from passenger tickets. Platform No. 1 is supposed to be the heart of the every railway station. There is only one urinal on Platform No. 1 for gents and ladies each. The women passengers can be seen any time in the day queuing for their turn.
Station superintendent Haridwar, MK Singh, however, said a proposal to increase the number of such cabins has already been sent to DRM Office. Mention worthy, there are 700 railway personnel deployed at Haridwar railway station. Station Improvement Group (SIG) team visited the station last on 31 October 2014. But as per the rule, the team is supposed to visit once in every quarter. In March 2015, total 780 passengers were caught travelling, sans tickets.