Holi rush: Migrants’ travel plans go awry amid long wait list

Kulwinder Sandhu

Advertisement

Gurugram, March 18

With less than a week left for Holi, migrants from Bihar, UP and other states living in Gurugram are facing hardships in confirming the railway tickets to their native places.

The scheduled completion of annual examinations in schools, the announcement of Lok Sabha elections from April 19 in seven phases in UP and Bihar, along with the upcoming Holi festival have triggered a rise in the demand for tickets from the city and Delhi. The trains particularly for UP, Bihar and Rajasthan are witnessing long-waiting lists for passengers. The Tejas Rajdhani Express (12310) from Gurugram to Patna is having a waiting list of 78 for 3AC, 46 for 2AC and 21 for 1AC for March 20.

The Patna-bound Rajdhani Express (12424) is having a waiting list of 121 for 3AC, 45 for 2AC and 14 for 1AC for the same date. The waiting lists of Sleeper classes in Ranikhet Express (15014) from Kathgodam to Jaipur via Gurugram is 89 (March 20), 63 (March 21), 92 (March 22), 105 (March 23), 57 (March 24), 110 (March 25) and 99 (March 26) while for 3AC the waiting list for these dates is 33, 34, 51, 57, 38, 54, respectively.

For Corbett Park Express (25014) from Kashipur to Jaisalmer via Moradabad and Gurugram, the waiting list for the Sleeper class is 32 (March 20), 62 (March 21), 84 (March 22), 70 (March 23), 35 (March 24), 67 (March 25), 61 (March 26) while for 3AC, the waiting list for these dates is 12, 19, 30, 30, 3, 38, respectively.

Pradeep Kumar Yadav, working at Zepto, an online grocery home-delivery company, said he wanted to go to his hometown in Ayodhya to celebrate Holi with his family, but he had not got the railway ticket confirmed for any of the trains going from Gurugram in the Sleeper class. Under compelling circumstances, he had to drop the idea of going to his home. Northern Railways Chief Public Relations Officer Deepak Kumar said the railways had started many Holi-special trains to meet the challenge of heavy rush of passengers. Meanwhile, the Haryana Roadways has started many additional buses from Gurugram on special routes to Punjab, Himachal Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand and Rajasthan till March 25 to cope with the heavy rush of passengers. The special buses are going to Mirzapur, Aligarh, Itawa, Agra, Bareilly, Ghazipur, Balia, Gorakhpur, Azamgarh, Saloni, Meerut and Haridwar.