Dinesh Kamath's news item 'Provide relief to Navi Mumbai railway commuters' that was published in Newsband

Provide relief to Navi Mumbai railway commuters

By Dinesh Kamath

NAVI MUMBAI: Navi Mumbai has many railway commuters. Many of these commuters face the ticketing problems. The railways should increase the number of ticketing counters at various stations. The serpentine lines move slowly and the railway staff is not adequate. It is for these reasons why Coupon Validating Machines (CVMs) and Automatic Ticket Vending Machines (ATVMs) become necessary to ease the load on ticket booking counters. It is not enough to just install CVMs and ATVMs. They also have to function regularly. The railways should every now and then upgrade and maintain these devices.

Railways should adopt commuter friendly methods to give maximum relief to the passengers. Practically everyday a huge number of Navi Mumbai residents travel in heavily crowded trains to and from Chatrapathi Shivaji Terminus. They have to reach their offices on time and hence when they see that the ticketing counters are overcrowded, many of them prefer to travel without ticket. At the Vashi station counter itself, the queues are terribly long.

Another problem that exist in Navi Mumbai is that at many railway stations, counters are only on one side of the station and that is the reason why there is overcrowding near the counters.

The railway authorities have been clever enough to install ATVMs at many stations but the sad thing is that at some stations most of the time these machines are not in working condition. At such times, the railway authorities should add to the staff at the counters so that there is no possibility of the formation of a long serpentine queue. Efficient clerks should be posted at the counters so that they can clear the crowd in a quick time.

The rail fares should be rounded off so that the clerks don’t have to waste time parting with the change or the commuters don’t have to search here and there for change. If the railway authorities ensure smooth functioning of ticket counters or ATVMs in Navi Mumbai a major problem will have been solved.

Another thing is the railway should ensure that their online booking sites function faster, so that no passenger is denied the ticket. Here too more ticket counters should come up so that the passengers don’t have to suffer. The numbers of coaches in both sleeper and AC trains should be increased considering the huge number of commuters who travel by these trains. Railway authorities should also see to it that there are enough special trains made to run especially during festival season and they should also ensure that everyone who wants to travel by these trains get the ticket.

The railway authorities should hire private vendors to sell local tickets at Navi Mumbai stations. In fact this idea has been implemented successfully in some stations outside Navi Mumbai. In fact, private vendors can be hired for out-going train tickets/reservations too. These vendors should be proportional to the number of railway commuters.

So these are various methods which the railway authorities in Navi Mumbai can adopt to make life easy for the city railway commuters.