Jamshedpur, Nov 4: For the convenience of the travelling passengers and to clear extra rush during Diwali, Chhath and Winter holidays, South Eastern Railway has announced a special Tatanagar-Chhapra train. 08181 Tatanagar-Chhapra Special will run from Tatanagar every Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday from 05/11/2020 to 30/11/2020. In the return direction, 08182 Chhapra-Tatanagar Special will leave Chhapra every Wednesday, Thursday, Saturday and Sunday from 07/11/2020 to 02/12/2020.
This special train will have one AC 2 Tier, two AC 3 Tier, eight Sleeper Class and seven General Second Class coaches and will run as per the existing timings of 18181/18182 Tatanagar-Chhapra-Tatanagar Express.
“Trains plying between Tatanagar and various destinations of Bihar and Delhi are already packed to capacity because of the heavy passenger rush. Trains like Bhubaneswar-New Delhi Rajdhani are witnessing heavy rush,” 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 100 mark, railway sources said.
An official said 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.
Tatanagar station officials said that they are taking extra care this time to provide relief to the commuters travelling in general coaches as they are the ones who have to bear the brunt of the menace created by some anti-social elements.
U K Srivastava, a senior functionary, Chotanagpur Passengers Association said that thousands of people from the steel city and other places visit Bihar during this time to celebrate Chhath with their families, the initiative to run special trains will provide ease to the passengers.
