Chennai

Southern Railways in the statement said that under circumstances when such passengers were not allotted with lower berth, they can contact the Chief Commercial Manager to get it done. 

The move will result in reserving almost 120 lower berths per train for senior citizens. 

“All they have to do is to submit an application in person or through their family members two days before the journey on a working day highlighting the problem,” the statement said and added that the Southern Railway will try to allot lower berth when the chart is prepared. 

The new mechanism for allotment of berth from Emergency Quota was implemented from February 22 and over 15,000 berths have been released to the passengers. It may be noted that this is in addition to more than 2,500 passengers who were allotted seats from the Emergency Quota after they approached the Chief Commercial Manager. 

To avoid discrepancies, the genuineness of the request of Emergency Quota will be thoroughly verified every day by the officer on special duty to Chief Commercial Manager, Southern Railway. 

Welcoming the move by the Southern Railway, senior citizens said that it was a long awaited one. “On many occasions, fellow passengers don’t exchange their lower berths with senior citizens causing stress,” Judin Joseph, a passenger told DT Next. 

According to him, it would be much better if the railway authorities instruct all the passengers to be considerate about the needs of senior citizens, pregnant women and mothers with toddlers.

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