Kalka-Vaishno Devi Holi special train

Kuldip Bhatia

Ludhiana, March 20

Northern Railway will run a Holi special train between Kalka and Mata Vaishno Devi-Katra.

Meanwhile, with the cancellation of two pairs of intercity trains from Jalandhar and Amritsar to New Delhi, passengers had a harrowing time today. To add to the misery of rail passengers, many long-route trains were running way behind schedule.

Passengers bound for the national capital were at the receiving end as the Railways announced cancellation of 14682 Jalandhar-New Delhi Intercity Express and thereafter the 12460 Amritsar-New Delhi Intercity Express trains. As a result, the corresponding trains 14681 and 12459 which leave New Delhi for Jalandhar and Amritsar respectively were also cancelled. Passengers with reserved tickets for these two trains were at their wits’ end to find room in alternative trains or else alter/cancel their travel plans.

Railway officials said both these trains, which share the rakes, had not been maintaining their schedule for the past few days and the cancellation for a day was necessitated to make them run on time.

The railway authorities announced that 04503/04504 Kalka-Mata Vaishno Devi, Katra-Kalka Weekly express Holi special trains will make three trips in each direction from March 17 to 31 to clear the rush of passengers during the coming festival of Holi.

The 04503 train will depart from Kalka on every Thursday at 1.30 am to reach Mata Vaishno Devi-Katra at 1.00 pm the same day. In the return direction, the 04504 train will depart from Mata Vaishno Devi-Katra on every Thursday at 9.20 pm to reach Kalka at 7.50 am the next day.

Meanwhile, many of the long-haul trains were running late by several hours causing huge harassment to travelling public. According to railway officials, 12413 Ajmer-Jammu Tawi Puja Express (8.57 hrs), 12355 Rajendra Nagar (Patna)-Jammu Tawi Archna Express (5.12 hrs), 12531 Howrah-Jammu Tawi Himgiri Express (4.18 hrs), 14612 Amritsar-Gorakhpur Express (4 hrs), 12357 Kolkata-Amritsar Durgiana Express (4.10 hrs) along with 15210 Amritsar-Saharsa Jansewa, 11058 Amritsar-Mumbai CST, 14674 Amritsar-Jaynagar Shaheed Express, 12380 Amritsar-Sealdah Jallianwala Bagh Express, 15209 Saharsa-Amritsar Jansewa, 12715 Nanded-Asr Sachkhand, 18238 Amritsar-Bilaspur Chhattisgarh Express and 02125 Nagpur-Amritsar AC Superfast Special (1 to 3 hrs) were running late.