The footfall of kengeri railway station has increased by 131229 in numbers according to the railway data for the year 2016-17 to 2017-18. Thus increasing constantly, making kengeri junction railway a major station.
Siddharth M, a commuter, said, “The station has a waiting room but it always remains closed so it’s very problematic because we have to sit outside. When it’s rainy we get drenched fully and it’s sunny most of the time so it’s not at all comfortable. What’s the use of having waiting rooms that remains closed? Since there is no roof, it’s a very big issue so if anyone is fixing it, it’ll be very good”
The Railway station also has Wi-Fi connectivity but cannot be accessed on phones.
Babu M.S, Station master said, “Upper class waiting room is only meant for reserved passenger (i.e) the one who have the tickets with them. We have a waiting room here and the reason behind it remaining closed is that the people without tickets also start using the room and litter around. Hence for the purpose of maintenance, we keep it closed. The High detention wires on the platform gives no space for the roof to be built there, keeping safety of the passengers in mind we haven’t built the roof in other parts of the platform.”
Expert in urban planning, Mr. Srinivas stressed on the need for the people to treat the railway amenities as their own assets. He also highlighted that social media can be used as a powerful tool in order to get the issues to be acted upon, as nothing remains hidden. He also said, “There are many railway stations which have no maintained stations, they do not even have roofs and the issues of waiting rooms and toilets being closed also remains. When you ask them as to why it is in this condition they say it’s being misused and remains dirty so we close it. So there’s something fundamentally wrong with the way it’s operational. MPs are the right people to tweet this about. They are your elected representative that is supposed to monitor railways as it is central govt. The railway authority must come up with alternatives solutions to the problem that they are facing now due to which they aren’t able to provide basic facilities.”
