Title - 17 airconditioned trains to tackle passenger rush

KOLKATA: Anticipating a huge rush of upper-class passengers during the festival season because of a hike in airfares from October, South Eastern Railway (SER) has decided to run 17 pairs of fully air-conditioned trains with pantry car facilities towards Mumbai and Chennai.

All these trains will run to and from Santragachi between October 5 and December 2.

Oil companies hiked Aviation Turbine Fuel (ATF) prices by 7% earlier this month, resulting in a major increase in operational expenses for airline companies. As it is, ATF price is higher in Kolkata when compared with Mumbai and Delhi. Before the price hike, ATF cost nearly Rs 85,645 per kilolitre in Kolkata. In Mumbai, the cost was nearly Rs 77,632 per kilolitre while in Delhi ATF costs Rs 75,031 per kilolitre. After the price hike, ATF cost in Kolkata has gone up to over Rs 91,000 per kilolitre.

The period between July and September is considered a lean one by airline firms and they are forced to sell tickets at discounted rates. However, there is a huge rush from October onward and officials said that a fare hike of 25-30% can be expected after September.

"To clear the extra rush of passengers, we have decided to run nine pairs of Santragachi-Chennai weekly AC superfast specials. These trains will leave Santragachi every Saturday at 7pm and reach Chennai at 10.45pm on Sunday. On its return journey, the train will leave Chennai at 7.50am on Monday and reach Santragachi at 10.25am on Tuesday. These trains will have 15 coaches," said Soumitra Majumdar, CPRO, SER.

Seven of these will be AC-III tier ones and four will be AC-II tier. They will also have a first-class AC coach each. Every train will also have a pantry car for the benefit of passengers. The trains will have stoppages at Kharagpur, Balasore, Bhadrak, Cuttack, Bhubaneswar, Khurda Road, Vizianagaram, Visakhapatnam, Samalkot, Rajahmundry, Vijaywada, Ongole, Nellore and Gudur," said Soumitra Majumdar, CPRO, SER.

The eight pairs of Santragachi-Mumbai (Lokmanya Tilak Terminus) weekly superfast AC special trains will leave Santragachi at 6.05am on Wednesdays and reach Mumbai at 1.35pm on Thursdays. On their return journeys, the trains will start from Mumbai at 12.45am on Fridays and reach Santragachi at 8am on Saturdays.

These trains will have the same compositions as the Chennai specials and will stop at Kharagpur, Tatanagar, Chakradharpur, Rourkela, Jharsuguda, Bilaspur, Raipur, Durg, Gondia, Nagpur, Wardha, Badnera, Akola, Bhusawal, Manmad, Nasik, Igatpuri and Kalyan.

"We expect these trains to be very popular as they will stop at important destinations. These trains are in addition to the 73 pairs of Puja special trains that we had already announced," Majumdar added.