Hyderabad: The South Central Railway is developing Lingampalli railway station as a ‘model’ railway station, but the fact is that it doesn’t have so-mething as basic as a properly functioning public announcement system, drinking water facilities at the second platform, toilets or benches.
The station has an advanced public anno-uncement system, but very little timely information is relayed to passengers by the staff responsible for doing so.
Lack of correct and ti-mely information at railway stations can be dangerous as large nu-mbers of people move in and out of stations.
J. Radhika, a software professional and a regular passenger on the MMTS from Lingampalli to Hitech City, said that the communication gap causes confusion among passengers.
“Due to signalling is-sues, MMTS trains don’t operate from the same platform. At the last moment, railway officials announce the platform information and passengers rush from one platform to another through the foot-over-bridge or by crossing the tracks. Sometimes, there is no announcement at all and passengers run to another platform when they see that the train has arrived,” she said.
Ramesh Dantale, a trader in Lingampalli, said trains halt only for one to two minutes and passengers in a hurry to get to the right platform take a shortcut by crossing the tracks.
“Some wait on the foot over bridge to see which platform the train arrives at and then rush to that platform,” he said.
Passengers complain of lack of drinking water at the second platform, lack of toilets and benches. The Lingampalli railway station serves 15,000 passengers per day, with 108 trains, including the MMTS, passenger trains and a few express trains halting here.
Chief public relations officer of the SCR, M. Uma Shankar Kumar, says that work on the second foot over bridge will be completed by the end of this month.
- Number of passengers per day: 15,000
- Number of trains serving this station: 108 including MMTS and 40 long-distance trains
- MMTS services to: Falaknuma, Secunderabad and Kacheguda through Hitech City railway station
