Title - Northeast-bound crowds thin down

BANGALORE: Last week's frenzied crowds of home-bound northeastern people have started disappearing from City railway station.Only 375 passengers booked tickets to Howrah and beyond, while 163 booked direct tickets to Guwahati. But all these passengers were diverted to Yeshwantpur railway station where the regular Howrah train departed at 8.30pm. About 471 tickets were booked to Howrah and 188 to Guwahati on Monday."Depending on the additional number of passengers, we may add one or two extra general sleeper coaches to the Howrah train," N Ramesh, senior divisional commercial manager, South Western Railway, Bangalore division, said.Officials in the South Western Railway confirmed that two special trains are headed towards Bangalore from Guwahati. While one train left Guwahati at 4pm, the other started at 9pm, respectively. These are the same two special trains that had left Bangalore on August 15.Senior railway officials in Bangalore had earlier told TOI that the rakes have to get back to Bangalore before they are dismantled and sent off to the respective zonal railways from whom they had been borrowed.