But Chandragiri’s remoteness takes the sheen off the ‘Women’s Day gift’

Ahead of International Women’s Day, the South Central Railway (SCR) management on Tuesday named the little-known Chandragiri station near Tirupati as the “all-women railway station” in the zone. As SCR General Manager Vinod Kumar Yadav formally handed over the responsibilities to a team of enterprising women, Chandragiri became the first station in Andhra Pradesh to get the privileged status, as Begumpet got the tag for Telangana the same day.

The station has four station masters, one booking clerk, one health worker and two technical positions. From Tuesday, women will don all the above roles. However, the beneficiaries of the “Women’s Day” gift were not all too happy, in view of the station’s location away from human habitation.

Chandragiri, native place of Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu, has its far-flung station located beyond Narasingapuram village.

Lacks facilities

The nearest main road point is more than a kilometre away and the only option to reach the highway is to take a strenuous walk on the dark, narrow road through the village. There is no reliable public transport to the station. There is no railway quarters and the village is also too small to dwell.

Only eight passenger trains from Tirupati halt here every day — two pairs bound to Katpadi, one pair to Villupuram and one pair to Guntakal — a mere 234 passengers either embark a train or alight in a whole day and its daily collection is a mere ₹5,000.

Women employees working in Tirupati, Renigunta and Chittoor stations have been transferred to this little station for this purpose.

Lost the race

As the idea is to name a smaller station located close to a main station, the upcoming Tiruchanur station between Tirupati and Renigunta was initially touted to get this tag. However, it lost the race as it is yet to get full-fledged infrastructure like road and platforms, leave alone facilities for women.

Along with Mr. Yadav, Guntakal Divisional Railway Manager Vijay Pratap Singh assured the staff to provide all support at the earliest.