More trains for kali Puja and Diwali

Kolkata: To cope with the anticipated rush of passengers during Kali Puja and Diwali, Eastern Railway's Sealdah division will run extra suburban trains late on Thursday and Friday nights. The trains will stop at all stations enroute, officials said."During Kali Puja and Diwali, pandal-hoppers from districts come to the city to enjoy the festivities. And many from the city also travel to see pandals at places like Barasat. To meet the extra rush of commuters, we shall operate eight pairs of additional services of EMU specials on Thursday and Friday," an ER official said.The trains will include Sealdah-Dankuni local, which will leave Sealdah at 11.30 pm on Thursday and reach Dankuni at 12.15 am. Another train from Dankuni will leave at 12.25 am to reach Sealdah at 1.05 am. A pair of Sealdah-Barasat EMU specials will leave Sealdah at 12.10 am on Thursday and reach Barasat at 12.55 am. The train from the opposite direction will leave Barasat at 1.10 am to reach Sealdah at 1.55 am. Similar services will be available on the Sealdah-Ranaghat and Sealdah-Baruipur sections.For holidaymakers, 102 special trains with 876 trips will run through Eastern Railway from across various cities and railway zones. The trains will link destinations like Howrah, Sealdah, Kolkata, Malda, Bhagalpur, Lucknow, Patna, Anand Vihar Terminal, Pune and Haridwar.South-Eastern Railway will run more than 30 special trains toward different parts of India to meet the festive rush. The trains include Santragachi-LTT Mumbai, Santragachi-Puri, Shalimar-Puri, Santragachi-MGR Chennai, and Shalimar-Kochuveli specials.