SR to introduce 'pay and use' waiting room

Tiruchirapalli, Sep 26 (UNI) The Southern Railway is planning to introduce a new concept of 'pay and use' waiting room facility, starting from Tiruchirapalli shortly, according to Southern Railway Additional General Manager A P Mishra.

Talking to newspersons here today, under this scheme a genuine rail passenger could use this facility by paying Rs 10 for two hours. The facility would be made available at Madurai, Chennai Egmore, Palakkad and Thiruvananthapuram Central railway stations by March next, he added.

Referring to the revenue of Southern Railway in the current fiscal, he said upto the end of last month there was a two per cent increase in the passenger revenue target and 12 per cent increase in the earnings, compared to the corresponding period last year.

However, there was a sharp decline in freight earnings following the non-mobility of food grains from the ports, closure of major fertilizer units in Tamil Nadu and Kerala and decrease in the movement of coal.

However, there was some improvement in cement loading with five per cent hike, he added.

UNI