Pair of Amritsar-Katihar trains back on tracks

Our Correspondent

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Ludhiana, April 4

Even though the pair of 15707/08 Katihar-Amritsar-Katihar Amrapali Express commenced its scheduled run from today, after remaining cancelled for more than three and a half months, passengers – intending to travel to and from various destinations in Uttar Pradesh, Uttaranchal, Bihar and West Bengal — still remained a harassed lot because quite a few other long-route trains were either not restored or were running in an erratic manner.

Railway officials said the pair of 15209/10 Saharsa-Amritsar-Saharsa Jansewa Express, which was cancelled in mid-December last year due to foggy weather, was yet to commence operation.

In addition, two more pairs of trains – 14673/74 Jaynagar-Amritsar-Jaynagar Shaheed Express and 13049/50 Howrah-Amritsar-Howrah Express, were on the cancelled trains list for the day.

Two pairs of trains 15209/10 Jansewa Express on Amritsar-Saharsa section and 15707/08 operating on the Amritsar-Katihar route had remained cancelled from mid-December till date.

In addition, some other Bihar and West Bengal-bound trains, including 14673/74 Shaheed Express, 14649/50 Saryu Yamuna Express (both running between Amritsar and Jaynagar on alternative days), along with 13049/50 Howrah-Amritsar Howrah Express and 13307/08 Dhanbad-Firozepur-Ghanbad Ganga Sutlej Express had their frequency reduced or alternatively being cancelled all through the winter season, thereby causing huge inconvenience.

Railway officials agree that these half a dozen odd trains carried a majority of passengers to different destinations in Bihar, UP, West Bengal and further to north-eastern states.

“The cancellation or erratic run of these trains during adverse weather conditions did cause inconvenience to the travelling public during the past three months or so but in view of passenger safety, coupled with operational constraints, some of the long-route trains need to be cancelled or have curtailed frequency,” said an official who did not want to be named.

However, harassed and exasperated passengers blame apathy and indifference of the railway authorities for long period of cancellation or erratic run of most of the long-route trains.

“Foggy weather and low visibility during winter months is a regular phenomenon and year after year host of trains are cancelled for months together making passengers suffer,” said Ram Prasad, a migrant worker hailing from Jharkhand.

Kishore Prasad, a hosiery supervisor, said on the one side the government talked of running a bullet train in the country, and on the other, the Railways had not been able to ensure regular run of existing trains during adverse weather, which was just a matter of providing safety devices to run trains in low visibility.