What is the
most prominent landmark of Chennai ? –
the State Assembly housed in Fort St George and the flagmast, LIC Building in
Mount Road, Omanthurar Complex now housing the speciality hospital, Chepauk
stadium, Marina beach, Kapaleeswarar temple, Banyan tree at Adyar, Napier
bridge, Airport, Port trust .. .. .. to me it is the Chennai Central
Station. If in doubt, see old movies,
heroine coming to the city would walk around the landmark with fear of
strangers in the eyes !
Indian Railways is mammoth
– millions use it daily. The first train
in India (commercial) ran in 1953 from Boribunder to Thane and developed
rapidly. When the Nation attained Independence,
Railways experienced a strange phenomenon. Mandra-Bhaun line went to Pakistan. In 2009 there were reports that the
75-kilometre-long railway track starting from Mandra and culminating at Bahun
in Chakwal, laid during the British era was ordered to be demolished. Dawn reported that the locals of the area
used this rail link till 1989 when a passenger train used to shuttle from
Chakwal to Rawalpindi in the morning and came back in the evening. Two big systems, Bengal Assam Railway and
North Western Railway were no longer in India. Some 2955 route-km of NWR became the East
Punjab Railway in India, leaving 8070km in the then West Pakistan. Part of the
Jodhpur Railway also went to West Pakistan.
Chennai Central (now Puratchi Thalaivar Dr. MG Ramachandran
Central Railway Station) (station code: MAS), is the main railway terminus, busiest railway station in South India and one
of the most important hubs in the country with the distinction of having the
longest name among all stations on the Indian Railways replacing
Venkatanarasimharajuvaripeta in 2019, when it was renamed. It is connected to
Moore Market Complex railway station, Chennai Central metro station, Chennai
Park railway station, Park Town railway station and is 2 km from Chennai Egmore
railway station. This station connects to Northern India, including Kolkata, Mumbai
and New Delhi, as well as to Bengaluru, Vijayawada, Visakhapatnam, Hyderabad,
Coimbatore and parts of Kerala.
The century-old building of the railway station was designed by architect George Harding. The station was renamed twice, from Madras
Central to Chennai Central in 1996, to reflect the name change of the city of
Madras to Chennai, and then in 2019 named after the popular Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu MGR.
The ever busy station has
remained silent after lockdown. Passenger trains have remained suspended since
more than a month, a first in the national transporter’s 167-year-old history.
The national carrier on average used to ferry nearly 23 million passengers
across 13,000 trains per day. By
Passenger the reference here is not to the speed but the carriage of passengers
– otherwise there are Passenger trains, Express, Superfast, Rajdhani and the
like.
There has been
considerable activity in moving migrant labourers by way of Shramik special
trains. Around 1,200 people from Manipur
left by a special train from MGR Central railway station to Jiribam, Manipur,
via Guwahati at 8pm on Sunday. This is the second train from Chennai to leave
carrying stranded people. The passengers were picked up by MTC’s special buses
from different points across the city such as Anna Nagar, Velachery and
Choolaimedu to the station.
Co-ordinator, Manipur
Association in Chennai, said, “all of them had registered with both the Manipur
and Tamil Nadu governments. The train was arranged based on the request of
Manipur. Some were confused about the pick-up point. Nevertheless, all of them
were later taken to the station. A few are still on the waiting list and could
not board, however, they will hopefully be able to travel in the next train.”
He also stated that none of the passengers who were to board Sunday’s train
were left behind. Southern Railway stated they are ready with rakes to operate
special trains to move stranded people.
Now comes
another positive step. In the first
cautious step towards restoring mass transport, limited passenger train
services will resume from 12.5.2020, connecting Delhi with 15 major cities,
including Mumbai, Chennai, Howrah,
Patna, Bengaluru, Ahmedabad and Dibrugarh, even before the third phase of the
lockdown ends. The resumption of train operations would be gradual, the railway
ministry said on Sunday.
Bookings can
be done only through IRCTC website and will start from 4 pm on Monday. No one
will be able to purchase tickets from counters or buy platform tickets. Only
asymptomatic passengers with confirmed and valid tickets will be allowed to
enter the station and they will need to wear face masks. They will be allowed
to travel after medical screening. People who had earlier booked tickets to
travel during this period won’t be allowed to board these trains.
Sources said
all trains to be operated initially will have only AC coaches with limited
stops between origin and destination stations. “These trains will run like
Rajdhanis and hence the fare will be equivalent to what is charged for travel
in Rajdhani trains,” said a source. The frequency of services between Delhi and
select cities will be almost like that of normal Rajdhani services before
lockdown. “It may take a few more days to put everything in place and
mobilisation of rakes to have regular service of these trains on the identified
routes,” the source said.
The move may
signal efforts to restore mass transport like buses, metros and airlines in the
coming weeks. However, the task will be challenging given the need for social
distancing and ensuring hygiene and health parameters on long distance travel
involving hundreds of passengers. In an official statement, the ministry said
after starting special passenger train services, railways will start more
services on new routes, based on available coaches after reserving 20,000
coaches for Covid-19 care centres and adequate number of coaches for up to 300
daily Shramik Special trains for stranded migrants. There is a possibility of early
resumption of other premium trains such as Vande Bharat and Duronto.
Meanwhile,
sources said railways was working on options of food and other catering
services on the trains and one of the option was to provide packed food.
Ministry officials said more details about the number of people to be allowed
in a coach and other related information would be made available on Monday.
It is really
a positive step ahead – we expect that planning is done to ensure that coaches
are not crowded allowing practice of ‘social distancing’; the common places
like pantry / toilets are properly sanitized; people travel with masks and
sanitizers, the passengers are in a
position to reach the Railway station and the Nation limps back to normalcy
sooner. Hoping all is well that ends well ! – people avoid unnecessary
travel and is used only by those who are in genuine dire need to move between
places
With regards – S.
Sampathkumar
11.5.2020.
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