Plea to run chair car bogies in Cholan Exp
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An advocate has approached the Madras high court to direct the Southern Railways to provide chair car bogies in the Cholan Express and not to collect berth charge in the day train.
Advocate K. Rajendran pointed out in his PIL that the Cholan Express starts from Tiruchy at 9.15 am, travels through Tanjore/Mayiladuthurai and Cuddalore and reaches Chennai at 5.45 pm.
In the opposite direction, the train starts from Chennai at 8.15 am and reaches Trichy by 4.30 pm. Berths are not needed as the train covers the 401-km stretch in day time as Railway rules prohibit the use of berths in day time.
The railways should have provided chair car bogies, the petitioner contended, adding that on the contrary the Railways has provided berth bogies and is collecting Rs 77 as reservation charges, which is arbitrary and unreasonable. The authorities should collect only Rs 15 as reservation charges in days trains, he said.
The Railways have provided chair car bogies for Palgaut Mangalore Day Express, Tiruchy Nellai Day Express and Tirupathy-Mannai Tri-weekly Day Express, which were introduced recently.
However, it failed to provide chair car bogies to Cholan Express, which was running for more than 40 years, he said.
The petitioner said Cholan Express had 22 passenger bogies, 14 of which are sleeper berth bogies, which can accommodate to 72 persons each.
In a chair car bogie, 108 persons can be accommodated, he said, adding that this is 50 per cent more than sleeper berth bogie.
The petitioner and others sent several representations to the authorities but got no response, Rajendran said.
A division bench of Chief Justice M.Y. Eqbal and Justice T.S. Sivagnanam before whom the PIL came up, adjourned the hearing by four weeks to enable the government pleader to get instructions.
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