Passengers miffed with food counters inside waiting rooms at Pune railway station

Passengers are now annoyed with food counters installed inside these waiting rooms that are eating into the space available to them. However, the railways are soon going to float a tender for the food counters to become operational

While there are different kinds of waiting rooms for passengers to wait, rest or refresh at platform number one of Pune railway station, huge food counters that have not even started functioning have been installed in these waiting rooms since the past several days, causing great inconvenience to passengers. Especially, female passengers are now complaining that they have no privacy left.

Huge food counters that have not even started functioning have been installed in these waiting rooms since the past several days. (Shankar Narayan/HT PHOTO)

Among the kinds of waiting rooms available, there is a separate waiting room for female passengers, another one for regular passengers, and an executive air-conditioned (AC) one for which passengers must pay Rs10 per hour. Passengers are now annoyed with food counters installed inside these waiting rooms that are eating into the space available to them. However, the railways are soon going to float a tender for the food counters to become operational.

One such irate passenger, Meena Kamble, said, “Last week when I travelled from Pune railway station, our train was delayed for two hours so we went to one of the waiting rooms to take rest. But as there was a crowd, we did not get enough space to sit. At the same time, these food counters were also there; they are an unnecessary addition. The railways have an entire platform where they can install food counters instead of setting them up inside these waiting rooms.”

Harsha Shah, president of the railway pravasi group, said, “There are different types of waiting rooms at Pune railway station and passengers go there to take rest and freshen up. Now the railway administration is trying to take away this passenger amenity as well. As per railway rules, they cannot install food counters inside waiting rooms and we have complained to the railway authorities but no action has been taken yet to remove these illegal stalls from inside the waiting rooms.”

However, Pune railway station director Suresh Jain said, “These food counters have been installed inside the waiting rooms. Their tender process will soon start and we will start operating them as part of the passenger facilities.”