Prime Minister Narendra Modi will be at Howrah station on Friday to inaugurate at least five railway projects.
Among them will be the Joka-Taratala Metro line and a Vande Bharat Express connecting Howrah and New Jalpaiguri.
Parts of the 117-year-old station have been spruced up for the Prime Minister’s visit. Countless flower chains, fancy potted plants, new lights, fresh paint and rolls of floor mats have been brought in to dress up the platform from where The PM will flag off the new train.
The other parts of the station, which commuters were using on Thursday, wore a very different look. The Telegraph spent a few hours at the station on Thursday to see the contrast between Platform 22, the venue of Friday’s programme, and the Howrah station that millions of commuters use every day.
Platform 22
Thirty-one pillars of platform number 22 have been each covered with rows of marigold flower chains. Potted bonsai, cook pine or the Christmas tree, palm and jhau plants have brought in painted pots to line the carpet that the Prime Minister will be walking on.
Each of the pillars has been painted new and their granite bases have been cleaned. A sparkling clean pillar is almost incongruous at Howrah station but The Telegraph saw many on Thursday.
Men who were busy decorating the platform on Thursday morning say around 1,800 chains of marigold flowers have been brought in for the occasion. There will be other flowers as well.
Platforms 19 and 20
Flowers: none. Pillars: stained. Hundreds of people were huddled on the platform deck and leaning on the pillars. There are concrete benches but too few for the number of passengers.
Towards the far end of the platforms, there are overflowing garbage bins. They are uncomfortably close to some of the seats. In some parts of the platforms, passengers, including mothers and children, remained seated on the floor near the bins, unfazed by the madness playing out at a distance.
A sniffer dog checks the flowers being used to decorate Platform 22; (right) a huge crater on Platforms 19-20
New lights
Heaps of old tube lights remain dumped at the entrance to platform number 22. They are being replaced with new ones. Groups of men are busy fitting lights on new panels hanging from the shed.
Trolleys carrying a tall ladder with men atop move from one point to another along the platform as new light sets are fitted replacing old ones. Somewhere in the middle stands a huge LCD screen mounted on a wooden table.
Along the kerb of the driveway to the platform are banners and hoardings with the Prime Minister’s photograph declaring the launch of the Vande Bharat Express.
Loose cable
A power cable hangs loose on one of the platforms with passengers seated beneath. The passengers were cut off from the hullabaloo in the adjoining platform. A curtain made of saffron, white and green cloths served as a view cutter.
A worker checks the cables of the new lights installed at Platform 22; (right) a loose electric wire hangs like a noose above Platforms 19-20
Spit and shine
Platform 22: Not a speck of dust. Some of the workmen have dusty feet but that is being taken care of in no time.
The tracks are being cleaned up by a group of men first removing the dust with brooms and then using water jets. The concrete slabs holding the steel tracks wear a new coat of paint.
Platforms 19 and 20: Passengers seated on plastic sheets on the floor apparently do not mind the water that flows up to the edge of the sheet.
Where is the water coming from?
They do not want to know.
The platform is wet in parts and broken in several places.
There is an accumulation of water also between the tracks and the sleepers.
Plastic bottles and garbage remain strewn. At one end, a dog is seated, eyes shut and legs curled inside. No one seems to mind.
“Have you seen the washroom?” a commuter asks.
“The women’s is worse. No one cares,” said the commuter.
