Excelsior Correspondent
Srinagar, July 28: After Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh dedicated the 18-kilometre rail link between Qazigund to Banihal to the nation last month, the number of travellers of the train has gone up by around 100 per cent, leading to overcrowding of the train with people travelling on roof of the coaches.
The Chief Controller of the Railways in Kashmir, Vikramjeet Singh told Excelsior that the number of travellers has gone up to 18, 000 per day after the Qazigund-Banihal portion was dedicated to the nation by the PM last month. “The travellers’ number has gone up as 11-kilometre Pirpanjal tunnel is the main attraction for the people”, he said.
Singh said that before the dedication of Qazigund-Banihal portion of the Rail to nation, on an average 10, 000 people were travelling daily. “The overcrowding is due to the Pirpanjal tunnel. It has become a major attraction for people. We will assess the rush for a couple of months. If the number of travellers remains same, we will send a proposal for increasing the frequency of trains between Banihal and Baramulla and adding more coaches”, Singh said.
Singh said that the Railways are operating 14 trains between Banihal and Baramulla daily. “We have no proposal of increasing the frequency of trains or adding more coaches to the trains at present. We will have a look at it after couple of months”, he added.
According to sources in Railways, five pair on Trains run daily between Srinagar and Banihal, and Budgam and Baramulla. “Each train has 8 coaches with sitting capacity of 600 but on an average over 1500 people travel in each train”, they said.
Railway officials said that due to the overcrowding, large number of commuters travel on roof tops of trains posing a major threat to their lives. They say police is not preventing the people from travelling on roof of the trains.
DIG Railways, A K Atri said that they have given clear instructions that no passenger should travel on roof top. He, however, said that the number of commuters is increasing day by day while the frequency of trains is the same. “This has led to overcrowding”, he added.
“We have taken up the issue of overcrowding with the Railway authorities at highest level. We have asked them to increase the frequency of the trains and also change the timings so that there is no overcrowding”, said DIG Atri.
A Railway police official said that Railway police sits on roof of the trains at the Railway stations to prevent people from travelling on roof tops. “As the trains start chugging we get down and some of the commuters climb on the roof top. It is very difficult for us to control the commuters from travelling on roof top”, he added.
Zahoor Gulzar travels to his office from Anantnag to Srinagar in train daily. “It is very difficult to board the train as large number of commuters travel at peak hours. I have been travelling between Anantnag and Srinagar since 2008, when it was running between Anantnag and Budgam. Since then more stations have been added but frequency of trains and number of coaches has remained the same”, said Gulzar.
Gulzar added that the frequency of the trains at the peak hours should be increased to overcome the problem of overcrowding.
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