Ministers, MLAs and bureaucrats usually travel by air. They need not travel either by railway or by motor vehicle when on long tours because they are not among the ordinary mortals. Therefore they know not anything about the sordid scenario at the Jammu Railway mini bus and taxi stand. In these columns we have at numerous times reflected on the chaotic situation of the bus stand. It falls on flat ears because railway bus stand is nobody’s vote bank. The deplorable condition in which this complex stands is a blot on the name of Northern Railways in general and Jammu Railway Station in particular. Nobody is prepared to own the responsibility of maintaining the entire complex. The police, railway authorities, Municipal Corporation, PWD, in short every organization when approached about the dilapidated situation of the bus stand wants to pass the buck to some other organization and absolves itself of all responsibility. Who then is going to do anything about repairing and remodeling of the entire bus stand complex including the approach road and the footpaths etc? It has become an enigma.
The ground situation at the mini bus stand complex is that casual vendors have illegally encroached upon the main entry link. The footpaths have been occupied by dhabawallahs, and the link has been reduced to its minimum width over which a single vehicle can pass with difficulty. The mini bus stands more or less like a cesspool in rains full of mud, slush and water filling it all the time especially during the rainy season. Chaos is let loose on all sides. Mini buses, three wheelers, carriers and private cars are all parked haphazardly anywhere and everywhere. If one day, traffic police allows private cars to approach the main entrance to the railway station, the next day it disallows this access. There is no regular plan of controlling the traffic though traffic police are to be found sticking out their heads at every conceivable place. There is no sanitation, no rest rooms, no restaurants or tidy teashops and no facilities for the passengers. Crowds of people coming as pilgrims to Mata Vaishno Devi are seen scattered or laying down or loitering all over the railway premises as they have no place to sit down and take rest for a while. The hawkers, beggars, handicapped persons and pickpockets all move around like swarms of locust making one feel ashamed of having come to board the train. Fruit sellers have encroached upon half of the main road and carry on their sales without being questioned by the policemen hanging around in numbers. In absence of meters, the drivers of three-wheelers charge exorbitant fares from the passengers especially when they are females with small kids or old parents. Cabmen plying between Jammu railway station and Katra make a pilgrim tourist miserable by virtually dragging him to his vehicle to earn a day’s wages. Once out of the railway station and on the bus stand, one feels one is lost in a wilderness where no law and no discipline work. It is reported Unless he greases the palm of a person of authority, he will not have the courage to make a show back the next day.
We have been laying stress on Railways and Municipal Corporation authorities to attend to the urgent need of reconstructing the Jammu railway bus stand complex in a way that it looks a modern attractive bus stand with all facilities for the passengers. We have been highlighting the importance of Jammu railway station in terms of its strategic and scenic location. More than a crore passengers pass through this station year after year as pilgrims to Mata Vaishno Devi and to Swami Amarnath ji Cave in Kashmir. Existing railway station, its complex and the mini bus stand are abysmally inadequate to cope with this huge number of passengers. It is an ugly and untidy complex though with the potential to be an imposing one. Northern Railways authorities did make a survey of this railways station and the complex and layout and promised renovation, which, however, has not materialized so far. It looks a primitive railway station with chaotic approach. One feels saddened by non-responsive attitude of concerned authorities.
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