RailEnquiry

RANCHI: South Eastern Railway (SER) has started several special trains to cater for the heavy rush of passengers during the summer vacation. To meet the demand, the SER authorities have added extra coaches to the existing trains as well.Divisional railway manager of Ranchi G Malaya agreed that even special trains were not able to accommodate the huge rush of passengers. "We received requests for special trains after which we arranged them. The special trains have come as a big relief to the harried passengers," said Malaya.In the wake of demands from Saharsa, Khagaria and Barauni, the Ranchi division has decided to run a special train for Saharsa which will run twice a week. The first train will leave Ranchi at 8.40am on June 18 via Muri, Bokaro, Dhanbad, Jasidih, Baurani, Begusaria and reach Saharsa at 10.10am next day and return on June 19. It is a 12-coach train with six sleepers, two AC three tier and other general coaches."A large number of summer vacationers come to Jharkhand from Bihar and vice-versa. This train will come as a great support for them," said Malaya. The booking for this train has already started.There is one more train for Bihar. A special train will run between Ranchi and Katihar on four days. The train for Katihar will leave here on Sunday. The next dates are June 20, 24 and 27. This train will leave from Ranchi at 2pm and reach Katihar at 6.45am next day. It will run via Muri, Bokaro Steel City, Dhanbad, Madhupur and Barauni. This train will have 16 coaches.The SER authorities have added extra coaches to several trains to accommodate the demands. "Three extra coaches are being added to Ranchi-Delhi Garib Rath, one to Rajdhani Express, and two coaches to Ranchi-Kamakhya Express," said a senior railway official.The Ranchi division has recently written to its headquarters for permission to run a special train for Bangalore. "We want to run a special train between Ranchi and Bangalore. We are waiting for the approval after which we will introduce it. It will run three days a week for a special summer period," said a senior railway official. A huge rush of students (admission seekers) is being witnessed in the existing Ranchi-Yeswantpur Express.President of the Jharkhand Passengers' Association R K Sarawgi said, "There is no other way but to catch a flight if you make a tour plan even 15 days in advance. All trains especially the premium ones for Delhi have over 100 waitlisted passengers for 15 days."The demand has sent the airfares soaring too. Currently average airfare on Ranchi-Delhi sector is Rs 9,000 that generally remains around Rs 5,000. Similarly, the fares on Ranchi-Mumbai and Ranchi-Kolkata sector have also gone up by around 60%.Aviation exerts say admission season in Delhi University and management and engineering institutes in Pune are also to blame for this airfare hike. "Most of the students are taking flights to Delhi and Mumbai these days," said Suraj Kumar of a private travel agency.