Title - Harrowing time for passengers at Daltonganj railway station

DALTONGANJ: Boarding a train was never this difficult for passengers at Daltonganj station, where coach number display board has not been functioning since December last. Senior citizens, differently-abled and children, have to run the gauntlet to board the trains. in which they have been allotted seats, especially in long-distance trains like Ranchi-Delhi Garib Rath, Ranchi-Delhi Rajdhani express, Shaktinagar to Howarah Shaktipunj Express Train, Ajmer Sharif Express train, etc.

An aggrieved passenger, who is new to the place, narrated the ordeal that he had to go through .

"I had to run across the platform to figure out where exactly I should be positioned. As my train would halt at Daltonganj for barely two minutes, I hurriedly got up onto coach no 9 instead of 7." Sources said some miscreants had uprooted the four poles of the coach number display board on platform No. 1 and since then it has been dysfunctional. It's been a month since the incident took place and there is no immediate hope of its restoration.

Arvind Kumar Sinha, railway traffic inspector, Dhanbad /Mughalsarai division, said, "Some thieves uprooted the four poles disrupting its services completely. The railway official lodged an FIR in this connection this December, but the case has still not been cracked." He also said restoration of the display board would take a few more months.

He added that a tender notice would be issued for starting the display board facility here and this would take a few more months. A total of 24 coaches of long-distance trains arrive on platform No. 1 and absence of a display board means harassment for passengers at Daltonganj railway station, a class 'C' railway station.