THE LONG wait of the Allahabad University (AU) students and teachers for the varsity's very own Computerised Passenger Reservation Centre (CPRC) is all set to finally end. The centre will formally be inaugurated in a newly constructed building located in front of the Holland Hall hostel gate on January 16.
"The demand for the CPRC within AU campus is an old one. Both the teachers association and students union had taken the initiative that has today led to the centre being coming up finally. It will be formally inaugurated by the AU vice-chancellor Prof Rajen Harshe," said AU Registrar Prof US Rai.
Prof Rai said the centre is a partnership between the Railways and the varsity.
"The office space as well as the building is being provided by the varsity.
The responsibility of daytime security and electricity charges will that be also of the varsity while night time security, cleaning of the centre etc will be the responsibility of the Railways. They will install the computers and also have their own personnel to man the computers," he added. For their bit, the AU will also receive a token fee from the Railways.
AU's Dean Students Welfare (DSW) Prof Jagdamba Singh said that initially only one counter will start functioning. "Later on depending upon the rush and meeting of the pre-set guidelines for people coming to the reservation office, new counters too can be opened by the Railways. Unless the lone counter reports a rush of more than 125 people per day, the second counter cannot be opened," he added.
{{/usCountry}}AU's Dean Students Welfare (DSW) Prof Jagdamba Singh said that initially only one counter will start functioning. "Later on depending upon the rush and meeting of the pre-set guidelines for people coming to the reservation office, new counters too can be opened by the Railways. Unless the lone counter reports a rush of more than 125 people per day, the second counter cannot be opened," he added.
{{/usCountry}}Prof Singh said that the CPRC will be a great relief to around 30,000 AU students besides the employees and the teachers.
"Earlier, they had to run a lot for getting a reservation done. Trips for concessions forms, getting the formalities completed, getting it attested for concessions and then getting the reservation done were a big problem for the students. With the starting of the CPRC within AU campus, all the headaches of the students will get greatly reduced," he said.
Meanwhile, AU campus is also going to have an ATM too. As per an understanding reached between the varsity and the varsity branch of the State Bank of India (SBI), AU will provide the space for installation of the ATM near the varsity library.