RailEnquiry

There seems to be no takers for the special trains to Bangalore intended to carry students and workers, who had fled the southern states recently, back to their places of study and work. Like the previous special train that left almost empty from the city on September 1, booking status of the 02510 Down Guwahati-Bangalore special train scheduled for Saturday too showed no overwhelming response from the people of the Northeast. As on Wednesday afternoon, booking status of the special train revealed that some 395 berths were still not finding any takers from the targetted group. According to Dispur, the special train was earlier scheduled to leave the Guwahati station to Bangalore on Wednesday, but was rescheduled to leave the next day due “unavoidable circumstances”. However, NF Railway authorities on Wednesday clarified that they had not made any commitment to Dispur that the train would leave on Wednesday (September 5). “As per our schedule, the train is supposed to leave the Guwahati station at 1:15 pm on Saturday (September 8) only. We do not know who commented before the media without cross-checking with us that the train will leave on September 5,” NF Railway chief public relations officer (CPRO) Situ Singh Hajong told Seven Sisters Post. State forest and environment minister Rakibul Hussain, who is also the spokesperson of the state government, after seeing off the passengers of the first special train to Bangalore at the Guwahati railway station had on September 1, had told the media that a second special train would leave Guwahati for the Garden City on September 5. The NF Railway CPRO also admitted that very less number of tickets had been booked from Guwahati for Bangalore. The NF Railway authorities have expressed their apprehensions that the real purpose of special trains would not be served this time around too as too few tickets had been booked from Guwahati. On September 1, the first special train left for Bangalore with only 102 reservations from Guwahati railway station, out of 1,224 reserved berths in the train. Even out of the 102 reservations, only 40 were reserved till Bangalore. NF Railways chief reservation officer BC Boro also confirmed with this correspondent that the special train of September 8 has 16 sleeper coaches with a capacity to carry 1,152 passengers, but as on Wednesday only 757 reservations were done. “As per the reservation status till today, only one fourth of the berths have been booked from Guwahati,” Boro said, adding that last time too majority of the berths of the special train were booked from New Jalpaiguri and Malda stations of West Bengal. Interestingly, many of those who had reached Guwahati station on Saturday to board the special train thought that they would not be charged. Later, they purchased general tickets when they came to know that they would not be able to travel for free.