Sitting amid the blackened remains of his home, 32-year-old Nikesh Gawali carefully broke open a half-melted plastic box with a screwdriver. His hands shook slightly, not out of fear, but out of hope. “I’m trying to find my daughter Aarti’s gold earrings,” he said quietly, still focused on the box. “She’s just five. I got them made recently after months of labour work.” The plastic box, warped and blackened by heat, was one of the few things left from his two-room house on the outskirts of Dhamangaon village . All around him lay ash, broken tin sheets and charred wooden beams. The walls had cracked under the heat and the front room’s tin roof had caved in completely. What remained was a blackened debris all around - almost nothing to suggest a home once stood there. Nikesh earns his living as an agricultural labourer, like many in the village. Work is uncertain and depends on the season. Those earrings weren’t just jewellery - they were a small dream, a reward for his hard work,...
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| A view of AC suite retiring room of Indian railway. |
Book retiring of New Delhi railway, Mumbai, Chennai or 41 other station from Nagpur
Website for online booking--
www.railtourismindia.com and www.irctc.co.in
By Dheeraj Fartode
Indian Railways have tapped into a new revenue source by networking its pool of retiring rooms spread across length and breath of the country for letting it out to passengers. Touted as a passenger friendly initiative, Railways have also enabled advance booking of the rooms at its 45 major stations, including Nagpur.
The project was undertaken on pilot basis on Central Railway and Northern Railway during last year and after getting good response the same facility is now rolled out on pan-national basis. The booking of retiring rooms is at present has to be done from the respective stations (45). Separate arrangements for booking of retiring rooms is made at these stations and travellers after showing the confirmed or RAC ticket the retiring rooms can be booked. At present the booking of retiring rooms has not been integrated with passenger reservation system (PRS) but in future there are plans to even ensure on-line registration.
Explaining the concept Additional Director General (Public Relations) Indian Railways, Anil Saxena, said, a passenger who has got confirmed or RAC ticket from Nagpur to New Delhi can book the retiring room at New Delhi. The booking can be done from Nagpur itself for the date on which the traveller is reaching there. For booking of retiring room the traveller has to contact Deputy Station Superintendent (Commercial), Station Manager or approach the arrangements made at the stations.
After reaching the destination the passenger has to visit Deputy Station Superintendent (Deputy SS) or Station Manager and show the booking receipt. Rates of retiring room vary from Rs. 50 to 650 maximum for 24 hours. Indian Railway charge Rs 150 to 200 for non-air conditioned retiring room. Rs 200 to 350 for single bed air-conditioned conditioned retiring room. And maximum Rs 600 for AC suite. The rates vary as per status of railway station.
Dormitories are available at Rs. 50 to 75 rates. Informing about future plan of Indian Railway to extend the facility across the nation, the ADG said they are studying demand pattern of retiring rooms/dormitory at various stations. “We have connected 45 stations in first phase and remaining stations will be connected in next phase.” Stations which are interconnected in first phase have heavy demands for retiring rooms/dormitory. Data collection process has already been started at all stations.
Indian railway have 7,000 stations in 16 zones and more than 600 stations have facility of retiring rooms and dormitories. Indian railway is focusing to provide best quality and service at retiring rooms/dormitories to passengers, he said.
The stations that are inter-connected in first phase are Coimbatore, Kanpur Central, Mumbai CST, Amethi, Raebareli, Howrah, Miraj, Solapur, Nasik Road, LTT, Pune, Allahabad, Kalyan, Puri, Visakhapatnam, Bhubaneswar, Thane, Rajkot, Ahmedabad, Vadodara, Bandra, Chennai Central, Chennai Egmore, Kota, Bhopal, Jabalpur, Secunderabad, Mumbai Central, Haridwar, Mumbai, Bangalore City, Rameshwaram, Madurai, Jammu Tawi, Amritsar, Simla and Varanasi.
Facilities at Retiring room
Indian railway provide facility of separate bed with pillow, bed sheets and blankets. Separate bathroom and toilet will be available for every room. Any passenger who have either train ticket of sleeper class or AC class could book non air conditioned or air conditioned retiring room. The passenger can book retiring room for not more than 48 hours.
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Retiring/dormitories in
Indian Railway’s zones
Southern Railway 75
North-Western Railway 16
Northern Railway 69
Western Railway 40
Southern Central Railway 58
North East Frontier Railway 39
North Eastern Railway 37
West central Railway 41
Eastern Railway 24
Central Railway 40
East Central Railway 51
East Coast Railway 10
North Central Railway 15
North Frontier Railway 29
South Eastern Railway 35
South East Central Railway 15
South Western Railway 17
Total 601
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