Title - No emergency quota in 16 trains from Ernakulam

KOCHI: While there has been a huge increase in train passengers from the city, the railways have failed to provide emergency quota (EQ) in many trains that pass through both Ernakulam south and north railway stations.

The facility is not available in as many as 16 trains passing through city stations. According to sources, the facility is not available mainly on trains that were introduced in the last four to five years. The allocation of emergency quota for each station is decided by Southern Railway headquarters in Chennai. However, they have not revised EQ allocated for stations in the city for the more than four years.

The facility is not available in trains such as Tirunelveli-Bilaspur superfast express, Kochuveli-Mumbai LTT Garib Rath, Kochuveli-Porbandar weekly express, Tirunelveli-Hapa superfast express, Kochuveli-Yesvantpur Garib Rath, Kochuveli-Bangalore tri-weekly express, Rajdhani Express, Kochuveli-Amritsar superfast express, Kochuveli-Hubli weekly superfast express, Kochuveli-Bhavnagar, Kochuveli-Dehradun weekly SF express, Kanyakumari-Dibrugarh Vivek Express, Thiruvananthapuram-Chennai weekly SF express, Thiruvananthapuram-Mangalore express, Thiruvananthapuram-Chennai SF express and Amrita Express.

"The lack of EQ in some trains has been causing difficulties for passengers as they are asked to contact the division's headquarters in Thiruvananthapuram," said Charles Diaz MP. He said that he had raised the issue with the divisional railway manager.

"We have been receiving several requests for EQ in trains. At present, they are asked to contact commercial manager in Thiruvanthapuram, who has the authority to release EQ from there," said P L Ashok Kumar, area manager, Southern Railway, Ernakulam. He added that the issue can be solved to an extent by reallocating some of the EQ meant for Thiruvananthapuram to Ernakulam.

The number of EQ for a particular station is decided on the basis of number of passengers and the waiting list. The railway area manager is empowered to release EQ at city stations.