Three special trains to cater to festive season rush

RANCHI: The Ranchi railway division has announced three Durga Puja special trains from Ranchi to accommodate the huge demand for berths in trains in the festival. The railway headquarters recently approved the request for special trains sent to it by the Ranchi division. The rakes for the new trains are also ready. The booking for Ranchi-Saharsa-Ranchi train would begin on Monday, sources said.
Special trains for Saharsa and Katihar in Bihar and Yeswantpur in Bangalore to cater to the rush during the festival season have been announced. The berth crunch has also hit the puja special Hatia-Yesvantpur train bookings for which began around a week ago. A railway official said there has been a huge rush for railway bookings for the festival season.
"The train is packed for four days," said a source at the reservation counter. The Hatia-Yeswantur puja special train has 16 bogies.
The Ranchi-Saharsa-Ranchi train would be of weekly service. It would continue till November 27. The other special train is the Ranchi-Katihar-Ranchi train booking for which would start on October 3. The service of this train would begin on October 4 and continue till November 29.
The Jharkhand Passengers' Association (JPA) has decried the announcement of only a few special trains.
"Three trains are not sufficient to cater to the huge demand of passengers. All passengers cannot afford to travel by air. In such a scenario they are going to miss the festivals at home," said JPA vice-president Ashok Nagpal.
"The railways must have announced special trains for Delhi, Kolkata, Pune and Patna also," he said.
DRM G Malays said demands are huge on all routes. "We have decided to add additional bogies to the Pune-Hatia Super-fast Express, Garib Rath for Delhi, Ranchi Rajdhani Express, Ranchi-Patna Jansatabdi Express, Hatia-Howrah Express and several other
trains.