Railway to accept donations for better facilities at station

Taking note of the lack of basic facilities for passengers at railway station, Ferozepur Division of northern railway had decided to accept donations from outsiders.

As per the new initiative, railway will accept donations like chair, water coolers, fans, ramps, escalators and toilets etc., from NGO's, people in group or person and in turn they could get their name engraved on the facility provided.

Earlier, any outside agency or person was not allowed to install anything, not even a single chair on the platform.

Ludhiana city railway station, which is one of the largest stations in northern India, has daily a daily footfall of more than 70,000 people. But there were only 28 chairs on the platform for such a huge population visiting the station on daily basis.

Thus, most of the people on station are forced to sit on the floor and wait for their trains.

The water coolers installed rarely work, especially in summers leaving passengers hassled. The station has no ramp or escalator for physically handicapped or senior citizens. Thus, if people will be allowed to donate things, station could get some facilities.

Mahavir Singh, assistant divisional railway manager (ADRM), Ferozepur Division, said, “We have decided to welcome the goodwill donors to enhance the public facilities on stations. Any donor can donate facility items and can get the claim on that by engraving his/her name on it.”

“The cities like Ludhiana have plenty of philanthropists and we hope that these people will contribute willingly to uplift the facilities at station,” he said.