Shakeel Ahmed has a simple query but he has been waiting for two hours at the enquiry counter of New Delhi railway station. He just needs to find out the status of his train to Bahraich district in Uttar Pradesh. But there is nobody across the window to hear him out.

Ahmed is not alone. Waiting along with him is an increasing and increasingly restive crowd of nearly 200 harried travellers who need information urgently.

Two of the three enquiry windows at the ground floor on Ajmeri Gate side of the station are closed. And the one open counter is clearly insufficient to cater to the large number of passengers.

The situation is even worse at the first floor. There is nobody here to attend to the passengers. “I have been waiting here for the past 45 minutes but nobody has turned up to attend to my query,” said Azad Hussain from Gorakhpur.

“Poochtach par koi nahi hai. Hum yahan do ghante se baithe hain. Hume Dholpur jana hai. Par train ke bare mei batane ke liye upar poochtach par koi baitha hi nahi hai aur neeche wale par wah theek se kuch bata nahi rahe hain (I have to go to Dholpur and I have been sitting here for the past two hours. There is nobody at the enquiry counter on the first floor while the enquiry clerk sitting at the counter on the ground floor is not able to provide the required information,” said Ramnath who was sitting with his wife and two kids in the concourse (the area outside the enquiry and the ticket counter on the first floor).

The mismanagement at the enquiry counters should be stopped, said Ujjwal, another passenger who had to run from pillar to post just to find out the status of his train to Jharkhand.