About 60 of the 754 railway stations of the South Central Railway (SCR) have turned disabled-friendly with infrastructure that includes a standard ramp with railing for entry, two parking lots, non-slippery walkway from the parking lot to station building, signages, water tap, a toilet on the ground floor, help desks, engravings of the edges of the platforms and trolley paths for inter-platform navigation.
These facilities are currently available at Secunderabad, Hyderabad, Vijayawada, Kacheguda, Nanded, Tirupati, Lingampalli, Rajahmundry, Guntur, Guntakal, Kadapa, Anantapur and other stations. And work at Anakapalle, Mancherial, Dharmavaram, Ramagundam and other stations are nearing completion, said General Manager Gajanan Mallya.
At the remaining 499 railway stations, facilities such as ramps, toilets, drinking water taps and walkways have been provided and other amenities would be provided in a phased manner. Similarly, at 21 suburban stations in the twin cities catered to by the MMTS services, some of these facilities have been provided and work on others is still in progress. These measures are part of the Indian Railways’ plan to accord importance to providing better transportation facilities to the disabled following the directions of Railways Minister Piyush Goyal. Most of the important stations have been equipped with wheelchair facility for passengers with limited mobility. The facility is free for passengers and is chargeable for porters. Battery-operated carts are also being used at some of the major railway stations while as on date, 61 lifts have been made available at 27 stations and another 14 lifts are under construction at seven railway stations, said Chief Public Relations Officer Ch. Rakesh.
Quality food
At a workshop on ‘Hygiene and cleanliness of catering staff’ organised by the Commercial Department of SCR, speakers emphasised that only quality food and hygiene would attract passengers. The workshop was attended by around 180 catering contractors, vendors, cooking staff, cleaning staff, pantry car staff and others.
Divisional Railway Manager Anand Bhatia, Hindustan Unilever Limited’s Summet Shivani and Food Safety and Standards Authority of India’s Munish Chawla addressed the gathering and told to improve food quality and hygiene to bring back the past glory of catering service, both at the stations and trains.
Senior Divisional Commercial Manager Sumit Sharma also spoke.
