Poor train service irks passengers in Tripura

Agartala, Oct 12 (UNI) Poor train services and irregular movements between Agartala-Lumding-Silchar have irked the passengers within a week of launching commercial service from the state capital.

According to report, no train arrived at or departed from Agartala as per the schedule, from the very next day of launching the service on October 6. Basic facilities like water,electricity and cleanliness were absent in the trains, reports said.

Northeast Frontier Railway officials, however, admitted that train to and from Agartala was old and abandoned and the matter was brought to the notice of the authority before launching the service but no action was taken.

Allegedly, there were no signal men on railway crossings between Agartala and Ambassa which delay the trains every time.

'' It is unfortunate that despite huge crowd and demand in Tripura the railway authority launched train service here with abandoned trains but they introduced new trains in Kashmir, rued states Information minister Anil Sarkar here today.

Mr Sarkar also underlined that Tripura was the second state capital in the Northeast to be linked with metre gauge but neither Railway minister nor his senior officials attended the ceremonial passenger service from Agartala.

''This kind of discrimination with the Northeast is the main reason of unrest here'', Mr Sarkar claimed.

He also demanded to upgrade the facilities and service quality besides replacing coaches at the earliest and convert Lumding (Assam) Agartala rail line into broad-gauge by 2009.

Meanwhile the state government has urged the Centre to ensure regular and timely run of the passengers train.

UNI BB RH AB 1231