Title - Suspension of PRS facility at Eraniel irks commuters

The Kanyakumari district railway user’s association here has urged the Southern Railway to reopen Unreserved Ticketing System (for season tickets) and Passenger Reservation System (PRS) facility at Eraniel railway station.The secretary of the association, P. Edward Jeni, told The Hindu that Eraniel railway station was the main railway station of Kalkulam taluk in the district. The famous Bhagavathi Amman temple at Mondaicadu, Indian Rare Earth Limited at Manavalakurichi, the famous Padmanabhapuram wooden palace, C.S.I. Mission Hospital and International Cancer Centre at Neyyoor, many schools and colleges and important Government offices were situated nearby this station. Therefore, many people commuted through this station every day.The station had earned a revenue of Rs.82 lakh last year, which was 11 percent more than that of the previous year. The station has been provided with UTS cum PRS facility. The PRS functions only for four hours every day between 8.00 a.m. to 12 noon. This has been a boon to the people of the Kalkulam taluk, who otherwise had to go to Nagercoil or Kuzhithurai for reservation.It has been noticed that the PRS had been closed for the past four days (July 14 to July 17). When enquired, it was learnt that the PRS had been closed due to non availability of staff. Passengers have been coming daily for the past 4 days to find the PRS closed, and were unable to book their tickets, thereby causing great inconvenience to the travelling public.

This should be an unique case where a PRS has been closed. Railways has blatantly refused its services to the passengers. There could not be a higher negligence of the passengers by the Thiruvananthapuram division.

It should be noted that Neyyatinkara station, which has a lower revenue than Eraniel, has three staffs for its PRS centre. Neyyatinkara got a preferential treatment as it was in Kerala, while Eraniel, which recorded more revenue than Neyyatinkara was purposely neglected. There has been no show of concern from the division in this regard, the secretary said.

The Thiruvanathapuram Divisional railway manager recently made an inspection of all stations in Kanyakumari district.

He assured that all stations would be provided with UTS cum PRS facility. But, here was a station which had this facility but the passengers were not being allowed to utilise it. This was a clear example of the continuous neglect of Kanyakumari areas by the Thiruvananthapuram division.

Though the station was in Tamil Nadu, the reservation forms were being issued in English/Malayalam, instead of English/Tamil. Passengers who knew only Tamil got affected due to this move. Hence the association requested that the timings of the PRS at Eraniel be increased from 8.00 a.m. to 5.00 p.m. and that adequate staff, who knew the regional language of Tamil, be posted to provide uninterrupted service to those who seek reservation. Reservation forms should also be provided in Tamil, said Mr. Jeni.