132-yr-old Karnal station awaits key trains

Parveen Arora

Karnal, January 7

Despite being one of the most profitable railway stations in the region, Karnal station, one of the oldest stations established by the British in 1892, has been awaiting the stoppage of some key trains for long.

A class “A” station and a National Heritage Site, the station earned Rs 3,987.37 lakh in 2023-24, surpassing the earnings of Panipat (Rs 3,587.67 lakh), Kurukshetra (Rs 3,053.65 lakh), and Sonepat Rs 1,400.25 lakh), according to an RTI reply filed by Karnal resident Hitesh Kumar, who sought information from the Northern Railway Divisional Office, New Delhi, regarding the earnings of these stations.

However, residents and passengers claim that the station has a low priority in terms of stoppage and lacks direct connectivity to important destinations. They have been demanding the stoppage of some major trains, such as Shri Shakti AC Superfast, Kalka Shirdi Superfast, Hirakud Superfast Express, Amb Andaura Vande Bharat Express, and Amritsar Shatabdi Express.

They have also been seeking the extension of Bhiwani-Kalka Ekta Express up to Ajmer via Ringus for Khatoo Shyam connectivity, and Delhi-Bandra Gareeb Rath up to Chandigarh with stoppages at Karnal, Panipat and Ambala Cantt.

Commuters have also been requesting an increase in the frequency of Chandigarh-Bandra biweekly to daily and Bikaner-Haridwar Geeta Ganga triweekly to daily. The residents said they had to go to Ambala and Delhi to catch these trains.

“Being located on an important route connecting Delhi with Chandigarh, nearly 150 trains pass this station daily, but more than 60 per cent of them have no stoppage here. At present, there are five Vande Bharat, five Shatabdi and one Rajdhani, but only one Shatabdi stops at the Karnal station. The government is planning to start one more Vande Bharat from Ajmer to Chandigarh, without stoppage at Karnal,” said Anshul Narang, a resident.

In the 2022 Budget session, Karnal MP Sanjay Bhatia had raised the demand to upgrade the Karnal station to a junction and the laying of track to connect Karnal with Yamunanagar, but it has not materialised so far, said Yashpal Singh, another resident.

Poor connectivity

The class ‘A’ station has surpassed the earnings of Panipat, Kurukshetra and Sonepat stations, but ranks low in terms of stoppage and lacks direct connectivity to important destinations, claim residents