Agartala, Oct 13 (TIWN): Frustration and agony is brewing among the rail passengers, travelling from different parts of Tripura as rail service, the prime conveyance of Tripura people to maintain their day to day service and economic activities has fallen down due to mega block. Merely one train Agartala-Karimganj consisting 5 compartments is in service from October 01 instead of 12 compartments. In such situation, passengers are facing a challenging transportation in Tripura

Sourav Haldar, a passenger travelling from Agartala to Kumarghat alleged that he found the train was already fulfilled by the passengers. There was no space to stand in the five compartments of the train. “After booking 6 tickets, I could not go by the train due to huge crowd”, said Sourav.

In addition, recently a letter was placed to the Union Railway Minister- D.V. Sadananda Gowda by the former Member of Parliament (MP)- Ajay Biswas.

According to the letter, Railway Department has started converting the meter-gauge line into broad-gauge from Lumding to Silchar in the first phase from October 01. It will take more than one year to complete the work. The next phase of conversion from Badarpur to Agartala will take place after the completion of work of first phase. He demanded to maintain the railway service from Karimganj to Agartala during the period as it was before. But the concerned ministry remained silent.

As an instance, enraging at the poor rail service, angry passengers yesterday encircled Dharmanagar Railway Station Superintended- Pradip Kumar Das demanding repayment of ticket money. The incident took place at Dharmanagar station, yesterday. Over 800 passengers had received their tickets from the station for boarding a train. But when the train comprising 5 compartments reached at Churaibari halt, the Railway Police Force (RPF) occupied all the compartments through one compartment always remains reserved for them.

After the train reached at Dharmanagar station, the passengers with tickets did not get any of the seats. As a result the red-faced passengers encircled the Superintended demanding to make arrangements for them to Agartala or to get them their money back. Meanwhile, the RPF personnel got infuriated and started beating the passengers, though none of them sustained severe injuries.

The passengers have demanded; more train service from Agartala-Karimganj during mega block period, arrangements for12 compartments based train instead of 5 compartments immediately.