RailEnquiry

Ludhiana : A proposal has been sent by the divisional headquarters of the northern railway at Ferozepur to the zonal headquarters and the railway ministry to convert Duronto Express (running between Amritsar and Chandigarh) into an inter-city express train with commercial halts at Jalandhar and Ludhiana. From the day one, when it was launched with much fanfare on August 24, 2011, the lone Duronto train announced for Punjab has been facing low occupancy. The railway authorities were under immense pressure to give stoppages to the train at Jalandhar and Ludhiana to make it commercially viable. But Duronto trains are supposed to run non-stop from the originating station to the terminating point, barring a stopover for technical or operational reasons.Senior railway officials said in view of the low occupancy and poor utilisation, an air-conditioned chair car and four chair car coaches of the train were withdrawn from December 21, 2011. “As the Duronto train had failed to draw the travelling public with the average occupancy ranging between 25 and 60 per cent, or at times even less, a formal proposal has been sent by the divisional headquarters to the northern railway headquarters in Delhi to convert the train into an inter-city express train with commercial stoppages at Jalandhar and Ludhiana. Since it involves a policy decision, it might have to be referred to the railway ministry before any action can be taken,” the officials stated. They were optimistic that the proposal would meet the acceptance of the headquarters because rather than the complete withdrawal of the train due to its commercial failure, it would be better to convert it into an inter-city express train and keep it running in a new avatar in the larger interest of the public.