March 12, 2015
Mamtaz Sanghamita speaks on Rail Budget 2015-16| Transcript
Full transcript:
I have only two minutes in hand, I am not going to waste my time by praising or displeasing Hon’ble Minister or the Rail Budget.
There is no local train between Durgapur and Bardhaman. You may be knowing, Bardhaman is a very old growing town which has universities, medical colleges and is an agricultural belt. Durgapur is a steel city and an industrial city. There is no local train from Durgapur to Howrah. As you may be understanding there is heavy rush of daily passengers including students and office goers. There is also no local train between Katwa and Sealdah, it is also a very thickly populated.
There is Gomo local which is running between Bardhaman and Gomo. It is a long journey of six hours and you will be surprised to know that no toilet facility is provided and same thing is with Purulia local which runs between Purulia and Howrah, which takes at least three and half hours and if it is late it can go up to four to five hours. You can well imagine the situation of women and senior citizens.
There is urgent need of railway overpass in Kalna railway gate in the outskirts of Bardhaman town just connecting to the famous GT Road passing through the heart of Bardhaman town and having heavy traffic load and urgency of ambulance.
Also there is a need of Talit level gate overpass which is needed for Suri Road which is connecting National Highway 34 to North Bengal, Sikkim etc. I would like to bring your notice the importance of this overpass is that there is mineral and coal transport, tourist vehicles to Bolpur and North Bengal, Sikkim and Bhutan.
Let me talk about another important issue, the issue of security arrangement. There are no security arrangements in the ladies compartments in trains running between Bardhaman and Kolkata, specially in the evening time.
The hawkers, in the local trains are sometimes a big menace and very disturbing. The females in the ladies compartment also feel insecure due to them. There is a need to have a specified ID card for the hawkers.
There is a very narrow over bridge at Bardhaman station, above the GT road.
Food and water are essential requirements for a railway journey. It is presently served by IRCTC in platforms. They often serve junk food mostly. The local vendors should be hygienically supervised and be allowed to sell food also.
