Plans afoot to make Mysuru rly station passenger-friendly

The Mysuru city railway station, which has been adjudged as the cleanest in the country on several occasions, will soon have the best of the infrastructure and will benefit passengers, especially senior citizens, physically challenged persons.

Divisional Railway Manager Atul Gupta, speaking in a media conference, said, one escalator is ready now and the second one will be ready in 20 days. “Besides, the lift will be ready by November-end and the subway by December-end. In view of improving passenger amenities, efforts are on to make good use of the Members of Parliament Local Area Development Scheme (MPLADS) and also rope in major corporates to tap their corporate social responsibility (CSR) funds,” he said.

“The railway minister has written personally to all MPs to contribute their MPLADS funds for the railway stations in their respective constituencies. There are 15 MPs in the Mysuru division. I have also written followup letters to the MPs concerned in the division. MPs Prathap Simha and R Dhruvanarayan have already responded well and have supported some initiatives. The other MPs have also shown interest in the initiatives,” he said.

“In view of retaining the reputation of the division of having the highest number of cleanest stations, we have officially formalised the outsourcing of the cleaning activities of 15 ‘D’ category stations,” Gupta said.

Speaking about the safety aspect, Gupta said, at least 60% of the accidents related to railways are caused due to unmanned level crossings. “In the Mysuru division, there are 150 unmanned level crossings and the intervention of the deputy commissioners of Mysuru and Dakshina Kannada have been sought to close down 31 of them, by providing alternative arrangements like road over bridges and road under bridges. Efficiency and punctuality of the trains will also improve if the number of unmanned level crossings are reduced,” he said.

“The division has earned a revenue of Rs 226.62 crore this year, up to the end of August. While the number of passengers has increased by 1%, at a total of 2.10 crore during the same period, the revenue from freight has decreased by 5%. The division has handled 53 lakh tonne of frieght against a target of 60 lakh tonne. Over 90% of the frieght constitue iron ore and oil. So, steps are on to encourage other industries to use the railway infrastructure for their transportation needs,” he said.