Wagon tragedy in the making? Train to Guwahati spills over

Monday 01 August 2016 01:02 PM IST

by Our Correspondent

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Kochi: The general coaches of the Thiruvananthapuram-Guwahati Express were swarmed with migrant laborers trying to reach their home in the North East after the railway stepped up checks in the reserved coaches on Sunday. The sale of tickets for the train was stopped as soon as the train left Kollam to avoid any unfortunate incident.

Many of the passengers who could not get into the train sought trains to Chennai or just waited at the stations.

The Railway’s commercial division and Railway Protection Force intensified their checks on the reserved coaches after complaints from passengers with confirmed tickets that migrant laborers without confirmed tickets were crowding the coaches. Some of them even occupied the washrooms, the complaints said.

The Railway responded by putting two RPF personnel on duty for each reserved coach to prevent waiting-list passengers from getting in.

The laborers said that they were forced to squeeze into the coaches for want of sufficient travel facilities to the North East. They could never expect to get a berth confirmed on the train and the only way to get home was to share a berth with friends who were lucky to get one, Sunod from Assam said.

The much sought-after train has only two general coaches but the railway makes a killing by selling tickets many times over the seating capacity. Only four trains go to the North East from Kerala per week but the crowd could easily fill two trains any day. The laborers sit inside the washroom or at the door in the torturous journey that last four days.

The railway stopped selling tickets to Guwahati from stations after Kollam on Sunday to prevent overcrowding and skirmishes, divisional commercial manager V.S. Sudheesh said.

The authorities have assured the laborers who could not board the train that they could catch the Kochuveli-Guwahati train on Monday morning. Passengers, however, said that the train is never on time. The train was originally scheduled to leave Kochuveli on Sunday afternoon. The train has been operating special services for two years.

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