Shatabdi launch: SAD, BJP derive political mileage

Sukhmeet Bhasin

Tribune News Service

Bathinda, December 17

It seems as if the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) and the Bharatiya Janta Party (BJP) leaders are more interested in drawing political benefits from the Shatabdi Express then providing better services to the public.

SAD leader and Union Cabinet Minister Harsimrat Kaur Badal, who is also the MP from here, is doing her last moment efforts to add Mansa stoppage into itinerary of the train, which will further delay the train.

Haryana, where the BJP has formed its government for the first time, had also been given three stoppages of the Shatabdi Express at Jakhal, Jind and Rohtak.

The train will cover the Bathinda-Delhi route in 4 hours and 45 minutes. It will leave from New Delhi to Bathinda at 9 am in the morning and reach Bathinda at 1.45 pm. It will leave for Delhi from Bathinda at 4.15 pm in the evening and reach Delhi at 9 pm.

The Dainik Inter-city Express leaves for Delhi from Bathinda at 8.10 am and reaches Delhi at 1.15 pm takes 5 hours and 10 minutes. Punjab Mail starts from Bathinda at 11.30 pm and reaches Delhi at 4.30 am.

The difference of the time taken by the train is not much between Shatabdi and other trains. This much awaited train has failed to provide any fast connectivity between Bathinda and Delhi as was expected earlier.

The Bathinda-Delhi biweekly Shatabdi was stopped within a month of its launch in 2002 due to poor response. It was started by then railway minister Nitish Kumar, but discontinued within 30 days as the train occupancy was less than 15 passengers daily.

This time, the train has been announced keeping in mind the crowd of Guru Gobind Singh Refinery, the Army Cantonment, National Fertilizer Limited (NFL) and Talwandi Sabo Thermal plant.

The Cantonment and the NFL were there in 2002 as well. Experts believe the train may not get the desired response this time too. They say with the Bathinda airport likely to start functioning in near future, the well-to-do commuters will prefer air travel than rail journey.

The route on which the train will run doesn’t appear that profitable.

The main reason behind the Shatabdi’s non-feasibility for Bathinda is that the region lacks industry and crowd that commutes regularly from Bathinda to Delhi.

City resident SP Maheshwari said he was happy because the evening train connectivity to Delhi has been provided, as earlier, there were only morning and late night trains to Delhi.

Another resident, Gurmeet Singh, said the train should have been given just one stoppage between Bathinda and Delhi. Now, it is just a difference of 30 minutes between Shatabdi and other trains but the difference in fare is high, he added.