RailEnquiry

chandigarh Connectivity of the UT through rail and aerial has increased over the past few years. While the start of international flights is awaited, airlines offer direct and connecting flights to a variety of destinations. There are more options available for those using rail as well. For Railways, the daily passenger traffic is more than 12,000. Stations like Chennai, Lucknow, Goa, Kerala, Bandra, some places in Rajasthan and Dibrugarh among other places is connected through the trains. A Duronto to Amritsar was started that would from September 11 be converted into an express train with stoppages at Ludhiana and Jalandhar.Station Superintendent Praveen Kumar said, “A new train to Bengaluru is also to be introduced this month. Over the past few years Chandigarh is well connected to many parts of the country. With stoppages at small stations as well, it is an economical and convenient way for people to travel.”Jet Airways leads in number of destinations being offered. The airline has flights to Jaipur, Indore, Bhopal and Bengaluru apart from flights to Delhi and Mumbai. A flight to Leh that had been discontinued in March is being restarted in October. Kingfisher Airlines has a number of flights to Delhi and Mumbai.Spicejet has recently launched flights connecting Chandigarh to Delhi as well as Srinagar. Air Mantra has introduced a flight to Amritsar that is yet to pick up with a number of alternate options available for the destination. However, Air India has just one Chandigarh-Delhi-Mumbai flight. While proposals have been sent by Air India for starting flights to more destinations, a decision on the same is awaited.

Air India Station Manager M R Jindal said, “Earlier policy makers used to say that there is no need for a flight from Chandigarh to Delhi as the distance can be covered easily by road and also there was the Shatabdi. Now the scenario has changed and Chandigarh is better connected,” he pointed out.