Rourkela-Bhubaneswar Intercity Express gets new coaches
Jamshedpur: It�s the Chhat season, and people of Bihar from all over the world like to come back to their roots to celebrate the festival.
The reservation lists of three Bihar-bound trains � Tata-Chhapra Express, Tata-Danapur Express and Tata-Patna South Bihar Express � show zero availability of seats on October last week to November first week.
For the convenience of the travelling passengers and to clear extra rush during Diwali, Chhath and Winter holidays, South Eastern Railway has decided to temporarily augment Rourkela-Bhubaneswar Intercity Express by attaching four extra general chair car coaches during the period from October 21 to December 31.This is in addition to one AC-3 Tier Coach already attached on temporary basis till December.
Meanwhile, officials at the
computerised ticket-booking centre at Tatanagar revealed that Puri-New Delhi-Purushottam Superfast
Express, Neelanchal Express and other
long-distance trains that travel via Bihar had also long waiting lists.
” Trains plying between Tatanagar and
various destinations of Bihar are already
packed to capacity because of the heavy passenger rush and the waiting list of the two popular Bihar-bound
trains, South Bihar Express and
Tata-Chhapra, has already crossed the 150 mark,” said
an official at Tatanagar.
Even so, many passengers are unable to reserve
seats and were stuck in serpentine queues in front of booking counters. The
waiting lists on the important trains had crossed the 200 mark, railway sources
said.
�We are aware that the trains are running full and some of the passengers are facing problems. But the railways are trying to cope. We want everyone to come down to their families in Chhath,� noted the official. He said that that adequate arrangement at the platform is being made to deal with the rush and avoid commotion and trouble.
�Announcements are made continually, asking
passengers to remain calm and maintain order. Moreover, we are not changing the
platform for train arrivals. Once the announcement about a particular train
arriving at a particular platform is made, trains are not switched to
alternative platforms, even if it leads to trains being late. Changing
platforms, may lead to confusion and stampede as the platforms are so
overflowing,� the official said.
He went on to add that Chhath is an important festival for the people of Bihar, Jharkhand and Uttar Pradesh. “Every
year people in large number visit their
native places. Plans are there to add coaches to several Bihar bound trains to clear the extra rush of passengers. We
are expecting a notification in this regard from
Garden Reach, headquarters of South
Eastern Railways in a day or two,” he said.
