MUMBAI: At a time when the government claims to be turning digital, citizen friendly and transparent, one commuter’s efforts for 16 months to get Central Railway to install at least one Automatic Ticket Vending Machine (ATVM) on the eastern side of Airoli railway station have hit a dead end.
After Akshay Marathe’s repeated appeals to the authorities, including the Railway Minister, GM, DRM Mumbai and the Railway Ministry via Twitter went unheard, he filed an application under the Right to Information (RTI) Act seeking reasons for the lack of an ATVM machine on the eastern side of the station. The application, however, has received no reply since it was filed in September.
“One branch of the organisation where I work is located in Airoli. The office is located in Airoli (East), which is a hotbed of IT parks. Every day, thousands of employees of these companies use Airoli station to reach their respective workplaces. Considering the heavy footfall it receives every day, one would expect the eastern entrance to have all the amenities required at a station. Forget a ticket booking office, Central Railway has not provided even an ATVM on the eastern side,” said Mr. Marathe.
He added that in order to use an ATVM, one needs to walk all the way to the booking office on the other side of station. In all, it is a five to six-minute walk from the eastern to the western side and back to platform. “That beats the whole purpose of providing the convenience of an ATVM.”
Mr. Marathe filed the online RTI application on September 15, asking why there was no action on his tweets, whether there were any plans to put up an ATVM at Airoli (East), and whether a feasibility study was carried out for the same. There was no reply to his appeal in the stipulated time, and the request has been transferred from one desk to another.
When contacted, A.K. Singh, the public relations officer for Central Railway, said Airoli has six ATVMs, which are all in working condition.
“But these are all on the western side of the station. And I am asking why there isn’t a single machine on the other side, for which I have not received a reply in the last 16 months,” said Mr. Marathe.
