Passengers queue up at counter No. 1 for platform tickets at Tatanagar station on Sunday. (Animesh Sengupta)

Price of a platform ticket: Rs 5. Cost of inconvenience in obtaining one: priceless.

Family and friends of passengers who want to buy a platform ticket at Tatanagar are left staring at empty counters.

Neeraj Sahay, a resident of Telco, had gone to Tatanagar to receive his daughter last week. But long queues and unmanned ticket counters put him in a fix.

Sahay, who finally did not get a ticket, waited at the station’s exit point.

“My daughter was to reach Tatanagar by the Delhi-bound Purushottam Superfast train on Thursday. At first, I went to counter No. 1. to buy a platform ticket. A long queue and the ticket clerk’s absence prompted me to move to counter No. 12 but things were same there too,” Sahay told The Telegraph.

Over 5,000 people daily go to the station either to see off their near or dear ones or receive them. Platform tickets are sold at counters 1 and 12, claim passengers. If one enters without a ticket, one needs to shell out at least Rs 600.

“What is the use of introducing platform tickets if we are left at the mercy of clerks?” Sahay, a Tata Motors employee, said.

However, S. Kole, divisional commercial manager, Chakradharpur, said they were supposed to be sold from every counter. Asked, Kole said he was not aware of the problems faced by the commuters in obtaining platform tickets from the counters at Tatanagar railway station.

Admitting that there was a shortage of staff at the division and several employees were on leave, he said: “Smooth sale of tickets might be hit because of this. I will conduct a surprise check and do the needful to address the problem.”

Tatanagar station manager Awtar Singh said platform tickets were supplied on a regular basis to counters. “Those willing to obtain a platform ticket must stand in the queue and wait. It is not necessary that a ticket clerk will remain sitting at the counter.” he said.