With no heating arrangement inside the coaches, passengers commuting by train in the Valley are bearing the brunt of cold weather conditions that Kashmir is experiencing from the last few days.
Many passengers Monday expressed their resentment against the railway authorities and urged them to make heating arrangements as soon as possible.Umar Shakeel, who daily travels from Baramulla to Budgam in a local train, told Rising Kashmir that the following dip in mercury in Kashmir, passengers in trains shiver due to cold as there is no heating arrangement.
“It is very cold inside and it seems we are traveling in open-roof trains. Some passengers board train along Kangris (fire pots) at many stations, which can prove dangerous,” he said.Another local, Mohammad Umar from Srinagar said,
“It is unfortunate that railways have failed to set up heating arrangements in the trains.”They have failed to maintain their coaches, he alleged.Umar said the windshields are broken in many coaches due to which cold winds enter into the train.
Elderly people and children are most vulnerable to such conditions, he said. “We appeal to the authorities to resolve these issues immediately so that passengers will have a sigh of relief from cold conditions,” he said.
Chief Area Manager (CAM) Northern Railways Srinagar, Sakib Yousuf told Rising Kashmir that the heating arrangement inside the trains will start next month.“The train has an inbuilt heating system, but to maintain that we need to hire an agency on the tender.
Work is on to make train travel comfortable and this issue will be resolved very soon,” he said.Another official at railways said following the COVID19, the contract of the agency expired and now the process has been taken with the ministry and within days the heating system in the train will be started.“After the heating system is started, fire pots would not be allowed inside the moving train,” he assured.
The 137-kilometer Banihal-Baramulla railway line comprises 17 stations. Presently there are 10 to 12 pairs of trains chug between Baramulla-Banihal, Budgam-Banihal sections of the line.