Tatanagar railway station enquiry counter will soon be outsourced. The Chakradharpur railway division has decided to outsource the enquiry counters of its important stations. The step will be taken in different phases.
Confirming this Chakradharpur railway division spokesperson Bhaskar today said that this will be the first-of-its-kind initiative in the entire South Eastern Railway ( SER) .
The SER zone comprises three divisions - Chakradharpur, Ranchi and Kharagpur.
“We have started the process of outsourcing the inquiry counters which will soon become a reality. In first phase inquiry counters at Tatanagar and Chakradharpur stations would be outsourced. The second phase will cover stations like Rourkela and Jharsuguda,” said Bhaskar. He said the process of appointment of an efficient agency would be completed in the next one month or so.
The outsourced 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 providing them with help line numbers.
The railway inquiry counters is now plagued with numerous ills like counter man not responding at night, basic telephone at the counter going nonfunctional, irritating behavior of the counter staff. Such problems would be avoided once the facility is outsourced, he said.
Chakradharpur is the highest revenue earning railway division in terms of freight in the country.
The Tatanagar station assumes importance in view because it is located on the Howrah-Mumbai main route. Several important trains travel via Tatanagar, including the high-profile Rajdhani Express and Duronto Express.
The station sees a daily traffic of 90 mail, express and passenger trains, besides a footfall of more than 60,000 passengers.