Rail traffic near normal, Ludhiana Shatabdi still off the tracks

Kuldip Bhatia

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Ludhiana, February 26

Badly hit by pro-reservation Jat agitation in Haryana, rail traffic had turned near normal as most of the trains on trunk route — Amritsar/Jammu-Ludhiana-New Delhi — were running as per schedule.

However, the New Delhi-Ludhiana Shatabdi train still remained off the track. Some of the long-route trains were also running behind schedule.

Providing huge relief to travellers on the Amritsar-Ludhiana-Delhi section, the Railways restored both pairs of Shatabdi trains (morning and evening) on this route. In addition, the 12459/60 New Delhi-Amritsar-New Delhi Intercity Express and 14681/82 New Delhi-Jalandhar-New Delhi Intercity Express were also pressed back into service after a gap of almost a week.

Railway officials said it might take a couple of more days to restore normal run of the 12037/38 New Delhi-Ludhiana-New Delhi Shatabdi Express which passes through Rohtak, the worst affected area during the Jat agitation.

“The train will be run only after assessing all aspects of safety of passengers and trains,” said an official at Ferozepur division of the Northern Railways.

A few more trains which remained cancelled for the day were 11058 Amritsar-CST Mumbai Express, 11078 Jammu Tawi-Pune Jhelum Express, 12472 Katra-Bandra (Mumbai) Swaraj Express, 12020 Jammu Tawi-Indore Malwa Express, 12926 Amritsar-Bandra (Mumbai) Pashchim Express, 14011 Delhi-Hoshiarpur Express, 14035 Delhi-Pathankot Express and 15934 Amritsar-Dibrugarh Express.

It was officially stated that the 13005 Howrah-Amritsar Mail (4.15 hours), 12919 Indore-Jammu Tawi Malwa Express (4.50 hours), 11057 CST Mumbai-Amritsar Express (4.02 hours), 12471 Bandra (Mumbai)-Katra Swaraj Express (3.05 hours), 15209 `Saharsa-Amritsar Jansewa (2.08 hours), 15707 Katihar-Amritsar Amrapali Express (1.35 hours) and 15210 Amritsar-Saharsa Jansewa (1.26 hours) were among the trains which were running behind schedule.