Railway enquiry counter will now be outsourced. Indian Railways has announced tender notice for outsourcing of enquiry counters at Koderma railway station, Daltonganj railway station, Singraouli railway station Dhanbad railway station and Parasnath railway station.
Confirming this, the JE cum assistant general secretary of East Central Railway Karamchari Union Santosh Tiwary said outsourcing of inquiry counters is now a reality and no longer a pipe dream. Tiwary said the tender notice has been given by the Indian railways. He said it would help stopping the sagging image of the railways here.
The outsourcer handling inquiry counter will have multiple works and jobs like announcing arrival, departure timing of trains, giving information of late running trains, telling passengers about the latest position of trains like where and which railway station the train is or reaching, warning passengers not to accept any hospitality by way of sweets/food/fruit/tea from unknown co passengers, in case of railway accident to help distressed relatives by way of giving them help line numbers, hospital locations, in event of theft to help passengers write complaints, cleanliness in bogeies, warming up of house keeping staff etc.
The railway inquiry counter now is plagued with numerous ills like counter man not responding at night, basic telephone at the counter going non functional, irritating behavior of the counter staff.
The railway traffic inspector Daltonganj A K Sinha said the outsourcer will have to keep a tab on the 'safai' of the platform too.
Asked if railway officials do surprise inspection of railway stations at night this railway official Sinha said 'I did a surprise inspection of Kechki railway station the other night around 2 am and did every thing o check the alertness of the railway staff there at this station'.
Sinha said ' I beeped red light to see the alertness of the passing goods train guard and driver. I saw the porter of this railway station if he was any sleepy or in full senses'. He said he did not find anything amiss that night in his surprise inspection.
On being asked that railway tracks emit bad odour because of 'dirt & shit' of the passengers Sinha said the use of 'Jaiwik Shouchalaya' is not going to be introduced here in this division any soon.