Shatabdi back on track after 13 yrs

Sukhmeet Bhasin

Tribune News Service

Bathinda, December 18

The Shatabdi Express is back on the railway track between Bathinda and New Delhi after 13 years. Today in the morning, Union Railways Minister Suresh Prabhuflagged off the train from the New Delhi railway station to Bathinda. In the evening, Union Cabinet Minister, Harsimrat Kaur Badal, flagged off the train from Bathinda to Delhi.

Addressing the gathering, Harsimrat Kaur Badal said she had fulfilled the long-pending demands of the residents as she had come with the gift of Shatabdi Express.

She also informed that following the demands of kinnow growers, the Union Railways Minister had agreed to add an air-conditioned bogey to carry kinnows from Bathinda to West Bengal and Assam directly and from Hoshiarpur to Tamil Nadu, to boost kinnow farming in the state.

Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Singh Badal said, “After Shatabdi, a flight will now be started from here as we are in touch with the airlines and talks are on.”

Speaking to the media on the issue of blacklisted Sikhs, he said, “The list was too old. I will raise the issue with the Prime Minister and tell him to cancel the list as the people are being unnecessarily harassed at the airports.”

It is worth mentioning that with the resumption of the Shatabdi, the Bathinda-Delhi route will be covered in 4 hours and 45 minutes. The train will leave from New Delhi to Bathinda at 9 am in the morning and reach Bathinda at 1.45 pm.

The same train will leave for Delhi from Bathinda at 4.15 pm in the evening and reach the Delhi railway station at 9 pm at night. The Shatabdi train number which will run from here is 12047 Up and 12048 Down. The train will run on two days in a week — Saturday and Monday.

Ahead of Union Minister Harsimrat Kaur Badal’s visit to he station today, the Divisional Railway Manager (DRM) Ambala Division, Anil Kathpal, visited the station and inspected it in the morning. The authorities had cleaned the railway station to give it a neat look.

The Shatabdi Express between Bathinda and Delhi was announced by Union Railway Minister Sadananda Gauda in his maiden rail budget speech earlier this year.

Till then, residents of areas in and around the city had been eagerly waiting for the Shatabdi Express to start from Bathinda.

Sources claimed that Harsimrat Badal again flagged off the train at the Bathinda railway station as the SAD wanted to take the credit for it.

Chief Parliamentary Secretary (CPS), Sarup Chand Singla, Rajya Sabha MP Balwinder Singh Bhundar, MLA Darshan Singh Kotfatta, former mayor Baljit Singh Birbehman and others were present during the flag ging off ceremony.