Jamshedpur, Dec. 10: The South Eastern Railway has announced the introduction of two weekly winter special trains between Shalimar-Jaipur and Santragachi-Hapa ( in Gujarat) Superfast via Tatanagar railway station. The trains will run during the period from December 14 and January 2.
The Shalimar-Jaipur Winter Special will leave Shalimar at 8.20 pm every Monday ( commencing December 17). The train will reach Jaipur at 6.35 am on Wednesday. The train will arrive Tatanagar at around 12.20 am on Tuesday. After five minutes halt it will leave on its onward journey.
In the opposite direction, the train will leave Jaipur at 12.50 pm every Wednesday and will arrive Shalimar at 11.20 pm, the next day. In the return direction the train will come to Tatanagar at 7.15 pm on Thursday.
The special train consisting four AC two-tier, five AC three-Tier and four sleeper class coaches will have stoppages at Santragachi, Kharagpur, Tatanagar, Chakradharpur, Rourkela, Jharsuguda, Raigarh, Champa, Bilaspur, Pendra Road, Anuppur, Shadahol, Damoh, Sagour, Bina Malkhedi, Guna, Kota, SawaiMadhopur and Durgapura stations between Shalimar and Jaipur.
The Santragachi-Hapa Superfast AC Winter Special will leave Santragachi at 9.05 pm every Friday ( commencing December 21) and will reach Hapa at 4.35 pm on Sunday. The train will reach Tatanagar railway station at around 1 pm on Friday.In the opposite direction, Hapa-Santragachi Special will leave Hapa at 10.40 am every Monday will arrive Santragachi at 05.45 am on Wednesday. The return train will reach Tatanagar railway station at around 2 am on Wednesday.
According to officials at the computerised ticket reservation counters at Tatanagar, trains for destinations like Mumbai and New Delhi and those in the south are witnessing a huge rush.
The waiting list in all the major trains, including Puri-New Delhi Purushottam Superfast Express, Tata-Alleppy Express, Mumbai Mail, Howrah-Mumbai Geetanjali Superfast Express and Howrah-Kurla Express, has crossed the 150 mark. In some of the other trains the waiting list numbers are hovering between 100 and 125.
Officials at the reservation counter also informed that confirmed tickets in all the major trains heading for big Metros will beavailable only after the first week of January.
� The rush is because of winter vacation in educational institutions. Keeping this in view, passengers have already booked their tickets well in advance for different tourist destinations,’ said an official.
Meanwhile, in an attempt to clear an extra rush of passengers, the Chakradharpur division of South Eastern Railway is planning the introduction of additional sleeper class coaches in some of the long
distance trains, including the Purushottam Express and the Tata-Alleppy Express.
Moreover, efforts are also being made to run two Howrah-Mumbai and Tata-Yashwantpur winter weekly special trains.