RailEnquiry

RANCHI: This Durga Puja the journey from Mumbai and Delhi to the state will be easier as two special trains will run through Jharkhand to ferry thousands of people who come home every year to celebrate the festival.Lakhs of people from the state work and live in the two metros. As most of them come home before the festival, a huge rush is witnessed in trains. Passengers from Dhanbad, Giridih and Koderma districts will get a special train for Delhi and Mumbai. A large number of people in the metros hail from these districts. The Ranchi division has also planned to add additional bogies in Delhi-bound trains during Durga Puja. To connect Bihar with Jharkhand better, a Katihar special will be launched during the festive season.East Central Railway has announced running of two special trains Kolkata Anand Vihar superfast special train from October 13. The 17-compartment train will run on Saturday and Sunday. It has one AC-2, two AC-3 compartments, 10 sleeper coaches, two general and two break-even coaches.In Jharkhand, the train will go mainly via Dhanbad, Parasnath, Gomoh and Koderma junctions."A huge rush is witnessed in trains during Durga Puja. Additional comportments would be added in existing trains to clear the rush. We will also consider running special trains," said divisional railway manager G Malaya.A special train has also been sanctioned for the Howrah-Mumbai route. The East Central Railway has decided to run Howrah-Lokmanya Tilak special train to cater for the crowd from Mumbai. It will benefit thousands of people from Jharkhand who live in Mumbai.The 17-compartment train will run mainly via Dhanbad, Parasnath and Koderma junctions. It will run on Tuesday and Thursday.It has one AC-2, two AC-3 compartments, 10 sleeper coaches, two general coaches and two break-even coaches. The train will start service from October 16.Jharkhand Passengers' Association (JPA) president R K Sarawgi has welcomed the move. "It would work as a major relief for the people of Jharkhand," he said. A group of JPA on Thursday met Malaya and demanded that special trains be run from Ranchi and Hatia railway stations to help passengers. The JPA delegation has demanded running special trains to Patna, Varanasi, Pune and Bangalore."There are two months to go. We will pursue the matter. A meeting will be fixed for next week with DRM," said a JPA member.