The Ongole railway station with a footfall of 20,000 passengers each day has got a face-lift with the installation of an escalator on the first platform on Sunday.
Speaking after inauguration of the facility, YSR Congress Whip in Parliament Y.V. Subba Reddy, Vijayawada Divisional Railway Manager Ashok Kumar announced, amid loud cheers, that the railway station here would have one more escalator on the second platform in the new fiscal.
A lift would also be provided for the benefit of passengers at this ''A class'' railway station.
The DRM exhorted the public to make best use of the Automatic Ticket Vending Machines (ATVM) set up in the railway station. Passengers need not stand in long queues especially at the time of arrival of trains and take the risk of missing their trains.
Instead, they could have a hassle-free ticket buying experience at the touch screen-based ticketing kiosks operated using Smart Cards round the clock, he said.
Passengers accessing the ATVMs could enjoy a five per cent rebate on tickets, he said, adding facilitators were arranged at the railway station for the passengers to familiarise themselves with the ATVMs.
Commuters would soon be able to buy unreserved tickets on their smart mobile phones. A pilot project had been taken up in some metros and the same would be introduced in the division based on its success in the metros, he explained.
Thanking Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu for giving green signal for stoppage of the Hyderabad-Thiruvananthapuram Sabari Express at Singaraykonda railway station in Prakasam District, Mr. Subba Reddy urged the railway authorities for stoppage of the Chennai-Jodhpur express at Ongole for the benefit of thousands of passengers from Rajasthan who had settled in Ongole.
The MP also impressed upon the DRM to open a railway ticketing counter on the eastern side of the railway station and a road over-bridge to replace the Agraharam railway gate taking into account the fact that over 150 trains passed the ever-expanding Ongole city each day.
