Lockdown effect: Normal rail traffic yet to be restored

Kuldip Bhatia

Ludhiana, December 17

Even though Railways are now blaming the farmers’ ‘rail roko’ agitation for disruption in train traffic, the fact remains that after the Covid-induced lockdown of nearly two months, train services in the region were never normalised. The scare of the pandemic has led to lesser people travelling via trains but Railways did have other operational glitches also in the post-lockdown period.

It was nearly after nine weeks of the imposition of lockdown that the authorities resumed operations of eight pairs of trains in Ferozepur Division on June 1, 2020, albeit with certain restrictions and Covid protocol in place. However, the services were again suspended completely from the last week of September when farmers launched the ‘rail roko’ stir, initially for three days.

Even after the agrarian community decided to withdraw from the rail tracks and railway stations after about two months (November 23), Railways resumed the traffic on November 25, with restoration of 17 passenger trains, but with truncated operations attributing it to a group of farmers blocking tracks at Jandiala Guru Railway Station and a few other places.

At least three dozen pairs of trains have remained off tracks ever since the lockdown was imposed on March 25, 2020. The trains that did not resume their scheduled run include three pairs of elite Shatabdi Express (New Delhi-Amritsar-New Delhi), four pairs of Intercity Express, one pair each of Rajdhani Express, Vande Bharat Express, Janshatabdi Express and Garib Rath Express trains.

Meanwhile, the Northern Railway authorities have announced that 05211/12 Dibrugarh-Amritsar-Dibrugarh Express special train would remain cancelled on December 18 and 19.

Further, 02715/16 Nanded-Amritsar-Nanded Sachkhand Express would short-terminate at and short-originate from New Delhi on December 18 and 19 while 02925/26 Bandra Terminus-Amritsar-Bandra Terminus Pashchim Express would be short-terminated at and short-originate from Chandigarh on both these days.

Box— Diversion of trains

02903/04 Mumbai Central-Amritsar-Mumbai Central Golden Temple Mail, 04649/50 Jaynagar-Amritsar-Jaynagar Saryu Yamuna Express and 04673/74 and 4673/74 –Jaynagar-Amritsar-Jaynagar Shaheed Express would continue to be diverted via Amritsar-Tarn Taran-Beas.