Buzz back at Amritsar railway station as Delhi Shatabdi returns after year

Neeraj Bagga

Tribune News Service

Amritsar, March 13

Much to the delight and relief of passengers, vendors, porters and others, after a gap of nearly a year popular Delhi-Amritsar Shatabdi Express arrived at the Amritsar railway station on Saturday. Passengers were upbeat about the resumption of trains from the railway station as it offered them convenient travel at moderate price.

Harjit Singh, a passenger, said he and his family frequently visited the holy city to pay obeisance at the Golden Temple and to meet close relatives living here. He said the central government should empathetically listen to farmers in distress.

Traders relieved

The resumption of direct trains, especially to Delhi, has brought a great relief to traders. Now we can travel regularly to the national capital and carry out our routine business as we used to do a year ago. —Krishan Kumar, Trader

Krishan Kumar and Sandeep, both traders, said they had been travelling by car to Delhi from the holy city for the past one year which was expensive and tiresome. Sandeep said traders had heaved a sigh of relief with the resumption of train services. They stated that “sweeping changes like demonetisation, GST and three laws on agriculture, in a large democracy like India should be avoided. Similarly, Covid-19 lockdown and its restrictions were equally and even more massive”. The moment the train arrived at the station concerned staff was seen engaged in sprinkling disinfectant over it.

Expecting livelihood, porters were seen running behind the train. However, most vendors did not open their vends at the railway station, demanding compensation in waiving rents during the past one year. They said vends had been closed since March last year following the announcement of Covid-induced lockdown in the country. They were being asked to open these without any assurance by the railway authorities in this regard.