LAHORE: There was a big rush at the Lahore railway station, Badami Bagh and Bund Road bus stands on the last working day before the Eidul Azha holidays.

The Eid holidays begin from Thursday (Sept 24) and residents of other cities started leaving Lahore on Wednesday evening.

People started coming to the railway station and the bus stands early in the morning but the number started considerably increasing by noon when government schools and offices closed, resulting in worst traffic jams on nearby thoroughfares.

Non-functional traffic signals because of loadshedding at Samanabad Mor, Yateem Khana Chowk, Babu Sabu, Multan Chungi and Thokar Niaz Beg besides near Badami Bagh Bus Stand aggravated the blockade. Instead of managing traffic, most wardens remained busy in imposing fines on motorcyclists.

The 10 special trains, being run by the railway administration to cater to the Eid rush, seemed insufficient keeping in view the number of people intending to ride trains to journey to their hometowns to join families for Eid.

Long queues were seen in front of the booking offices at the railway station. People were seen boarding passenger trains’ coaches and locomotives at Badami Bagh, Shahdara, Cantt, Kot Lakhpat and Raiwind City railway stations.

Strict security arrangements were made at the Lahore railway station while no such measures were seen at the Badami Bagh and Bund Road bus stands where hundreds of people came to catch a train or a bus.

All entry and exit points to the city railway station were properly manned and incoming passengers and their luggage was checked with metal detectors while a number of policemen were seen on patrol on all the plateforms.

Operators of a few buses and coaches were seen using metal detectors to check commuters boarding the vehicles at some Badami Bagh bus bays but they were not bothered about the luggage, being loaded either on top or under the seats.

At the railway station, a number of intending passengers were seen searching for space in the trains along with their luggage while at the two bus stands almost every commuter was found complaining about overcharging and misbehaving by transporters.

The sanitary conditions on all platforms of the Lahore railway station were far from satisfactory while ample quantity of potable water was also not available there.

Some 100,000 or so people visit the Lahore railway station, the busiest in the country, daily on an average and the number considerably increases on weekends and before and after such holidays.

Meanwhile, the railways police said security arrangement on all entry points to the Lahore station intensified.

A Railways police spokesman said a master plan had been prepared to ensure the security of passengers. Lady commandos would also travel in all the trains. The number of plainclothesmen at platforms had also been increased manifold.

Regarding the practice to travel on the roofs of coaches and locomotives, the spokesman said owing to staff shortage the trend could not be checked on all stations.

Published in Dawn, September 24th, 2015

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