RailEnquiry

GURGAON: As the summer reaches its peak, the booking centre at the Gurgaon railway station has been witnessing unprecedented rush with people standing in long queues for hours, especially for tatkal reservation.The Gurgaon railway station is one of the oldest stations on the Delhi-Rewari-Jaipur route. Despite the city's tremendous progress, the Northern Railway has ignored the station over the years.There are only five reservation counters at the station, out of which one is reserved for women, senior citizens and military personnel. The remaining counters witness heavy rush even before it opens. Looking at the rush, passengers have demanded that reservation counters at the station should be increased to 10.The rush has been especially heavy in the last fortnight with most passengers visiting the booking centre for tatkal tickets. Tatkal tickets are issued one day before the date of the journey and since there is heavy demand, passengers are seen standing in the queue from as early as 4am.

"I've been visiting the centre for the last four days for tatkal reservation. But no luck so far. I don't know why the condition is so awful," Ramesh Kumar, a passenger, said.

The long queues have opened up opportunities for a group of people to earn an extra buck. They come to a passenger and offer to stand in the queue on his behalf. This will, of course, cost the passenger. "When we came to the tatkal line, a person approached me and offered to stand in the queue. For this, he asked for Rs 1,000. Police should keep vigil on these people who are out to extort unsuspecting citizens," Ashish Nayak, a passenger wanting to go to Bhadrak in Odisha, said.

With the passenger rush to the station increasing every year, the northern railway authorities have done very little to upgrade the station. According to a source, a few years back, Rs 39 lakh was sanctioned for the upgradation of the station. Though the entrance to the station got a new look and some facilities inside the station was renovated, nothing was done about the reservation centre. The authorities had promised to increase the reservation windows to 10 from the current five but nothing was done on that front.An official of the northern railway, on the condition of anonymity, said: "We admit to the fact though the population of Gurgaon has increased manifold over the years, the railway station has been ignored so far. But good news is Vrij Vasan railway station is going to be upgraded. It is nearest to Gurgaon and the airport. Once it is upgraded, it is definitely going to help the population of Gurgaon."