Tinsukia: Tinsukia, Dibrugarh and Jorhat railway stations have been compelled to shut down a passenger reservation system (PRS) ticket counter each because of an acute shortage of staff in various departments of Tinsukia railway division.

It is also causing major hindrances in overall operational activities and hampering the railways' earnings.

At present, the number of railway staff in the division is 6,040 against the sanctioned capacity of 7,539. There is shortage of over 1,450 employees in various departments, including commercial, mechanical, civil and the RPF.

The staff shortage has come at a time when several trains, including the Shatabdi Express, were introduced. Addition of facilities such as running diesel electric multiple unit sheds and primary maintenance of Rajdhani Express require more staff.

A rail official said: "Earnings have increased on all fronts compared to previous year. Several new services have been added despite acute shortage of staff in various departments. The Tinsukia division has time and again taken up the matter with the higher authorities. Hopefully the vacancies will be filled up soon."

The Tinsukia railway division, one of the five railway divisions under the NF Railway, was formed on January 15, 1958. It has 75 stations under its ambit and run 20 to 25 trains on an average daily.

A railway source said: "At present, 29 posts of supervisor are lying vacant in addition to 78 vacancies for posts of technical staff and helper. The division is facing acute shortage of loco-running staff. The commercial department alone is facing shortage of around 140 staff of whom more than 45 posts are that of train ticket examiners (TTE)."

"This not only affects checking, nabbing ticketless passengers and collection of penalties, but also restrict senior officers from taking steps against those TTE on the ground of dereliction of duty. Though the division is doing good on many aspects, shortage of staff by around 20 per cent than the sanctioned capacity is hitting the operations and pulling down the actual revenue-earning capacity."