The solo booking counter at Rajgir railway station. Picture by Roshan Kumar

Rajgir, Sept. 8: Rajgir is a hotspot for tourists, and now academics, but amenities at the railway station leave a lot to be desired.

The washrooms, waiting room and retiring room remain closed most of the time. Enquiry counters are a lot to ask for. Passengers in need of information about trains mostly go to the railway reservation counters or the stationmaster’s office.

For a station that registers a footfall of around 10,000 people in the off-season and at least 50,000 in the festive season, it’s surprising.

Sridhar V.K., the administrative head of Nalanda University, thinks so too. Sridhar, who has worked with institutions in different cities,said: “When I reached Rajgir railway station for the first time, I was a bit surprised to see the facilities. It was tough to find a porter or any taxi outside the railway station. I was lucky a few people from the university had come to pick me up. Imagine the plight of general passengers who visit Rajgir.”

Rajgir, around 110km southeast of Patna, is an important tourist destination in Bihar. People come here to see the Nalanda ruins (11km away) and visit Pawapuri, the popular Jain tourist spot around 25km from Rajgir. The new Nalanda University has added to the town’s significance.

When The Telegraph visited the railway station , some people were sitting on the platform, waiting for the New Delhi-Rajgir Shramjeevi Express. Akhilesh Prasad, one of them, said: “You see the station’s condition. It has just one waiting room and that too is closed half of the time. There is no enquiry counter either.”

There are two washrooms, apart from a waiting room and retiring room, on the station premises. But these remain closed for at least 12 hours from 8pm to the inconvenience of passengers. As the two public utilities are closed at night, passengers have no other option but to go outside the station to relieve themselves.

The station comes under the Danapur division of East Central Railway (ECR). Nine trains, including the Rajgir-New Delhi Shramjeevi Express, Budhpurnima Express and passenger trains, originate or pass through Rajgir. Several tourists from Buddhist countries such as Japan, China, Laos and Sri Lanka visit Rajgir.

Shyamu Chaudhary, the deputy station superintendent at the railway station, said: “The railway administration has outsourced the maintenance work to a private agency. The officials work after 8 every morning.”

Arvind Kumar Rajak, chief public relations officer, East Central Railway, said: “A dedicated enquiry counter is in the pipeline for the Rajgir railway station. The retiring room was constructed a few months ago, but is hardly used by passengers because the station is small. So, it remains closed most of the time. However, it will be looked into why the urinals are closed at night.”