Shatabdi extra coach goes abegging

Mohit Khanna

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, May 23

The railway authorities need to learn lessons from the Haryana Roadways on how to make profits in the wake of the airport closure.

While an executive coach attached to the Shatabdi heading for Delhi found no passengers on Wednesday, buses of the Haryana Roadways, on the other hand, were running packed to capacity.

On Wednesday, the railway authorities attached an extra executive chair car to the afternoon Shatabdi to Delhi, but it did not find any takers.

All 48 seats of the executive class remained vacant. The railway authorities took the decision to add an executive coach to the afternoon Shatabdi to attract more passengers. However, the move boomeranged and not a single ticket was sold.

Karnail Singh, chief reservation officer, said all 48 seats in the executive class of the train went unsold. He said in the wake of the airport closure, the Railways had attached an AC chair car and an executive coach to the Shatabdi.

Requesting anonymity, a railway official said instead of introducing the executive chair car, the railway authorities should have introduced a simple AC chair car coach, which "is easy on the pocket of passengers". While the fare of the AC chair car is Rs 800 (excluding flexi fare), the executive class seat costs Rs 1,160.

“The decision of running an executive chair car must have resulted in a loss of over Rs 1 lakh to the Railways,” said the employee.

In a striking contrast to the Shatabdi, not a single seat was available on 16 buses of the Haryana Roadways, which left for Delhi on Wednesday night or would leave on Thursday morning.

“The tickets are available only for May 25 night and May 26. The seats are nearly booked for buses plying during the weekend,” said an employee at the Haryana ticket booking counter. The rate of private taxis and web-based taxis are the same for Delhi.