RailEnquiry

LUDHIANA: With the festivals of Diwali and Chhath Puja less than two months away, there has been a heavy demand for railway tickets. Several city residents, who hail from UP, MP and Bihar, are finding it hard to get confirmed tickets for their journey back home. Dhananjay Kumar, an employee of an automobile parts factory who hails from Bihar: "I am planning to go home in October, to celebrate Diwali. I tried to book tickets for the same online, but found that the waiting list for 3-tier AC class is more than 50 for any train."

Many residents wishing to go to their home states are annoyed with the bookings on the IRCTC website. "The website crashes every now and then, and the number of tickets being booked at a time is very less. And even as a person manages to get to the website, the waiting list is too long. However, it is surprising that there is no waiting list for Diwali day," adds Anil Pandey, an employee of a garment factory who belongs to Lucknow, and who wishes to go home to celebrate Diwali and Chhath Puja with his parents there.

As the waiting list is growing by the day, residents are demanding that railways should start special trains around the festivals. Says Suresh Kumar of Indore, who works in a hosiery unit: "The rush during the festive season is not unexpected for the authorities. They should have taken advance measures to ensure that those wishing to travel home to celebrate festivals don"t face problems. Even now, they can start new trains for the festival season."

Meanwhile, railway authorities say that the rush for tickets around the festival season is always there. "Given the fact that the rush will be there during the coming festival season too, we are soon announcing the start of holiday special trains, and are also planning to attach more coaches in the existing trains," said NC Goyal, Divisional Railway Manager of Ferozepur division, who also looks after railway operations in the Ludhiana area.