I visited Varanasi in Uttar Pradesh – the city of temples – this summer. To be honest, I was pretty excited but as soon as I alighted my train on platform number 5 at Varanasi Junction, I felt like my enthusiasm was punctured like a balloon.
I was shocked to see the station of our prime minister’s constituency in such a poor state. Is Varanasi really placed under the smart city project? By looking at Varanasi Junction, it didn’t seem like that at all. The broken railway tracks are a case in point.
The condition of Varanasi station also made me wonder the condition of other railway stations in the country. It would be ideal if the Indian Railways could focus on developing this as well as other stations.
A quick Google search told me that Varanasi Junction is not placed under the government’s Adarsh Station scheme, but that’s not a reason for the government to neglect it. Varanasi is a historic city and we see thousands of tourists flocking it to get a taste of its religious and spiritual traits.
I don’t want to talk about one place/city, or a railway station, I would like to also add that the condition of trains are not great either. While on one side, we are all gung-ho about bullet trains but on the other hand we can’t even maintain the quality of our inter-state trains.
To add to that, we also need to lower passenger load on trains and make the journey less torturous for general class passengers. There is not enough seating arrangements at the stations, the toilet stinks and the food quality is sub-standard.
While governments come and go the only thing that remains constant is the poor maintenance and quality of the Indian Railways. This, despite the railways being ascribed a huge chunk of money allocated each year in the Budget.
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