Rourkela’s demands for extension of five express trains ignored

ROURKELA:  Even as Rourkela junction on the busy Howrah-Mumbai route of South Eastern Railway (SER) is a major revenue contributor for SER, its long standing demands for extension of few key trains continue to be ignored on flimsy grounds.General secretary of Udbhav, a forum for integrated development and mass awareness, VP Tiwari on March 5, in a letter to Railway Minister Piyus Goyal renewed the demand for extension of Gorakhpur-Hatia Maurya Superfast Express to Rourkela.

He stated that it would benefit a sizable population of eastern UP, Jharkhand and north Bihar staying in Rourkela. He further noted that a large number of passengers from eastern UP and north Bihar, who travel on this train, reach Hatia in the morning and are made to wait for 6-7 hours to catch Tapaswini Express in the evening to reach Rourkela.

Eight years ago, the demand was rejected citing the poor punctuality record of Maurya Express. Tiwari, however, said the train gets stranded at Hatia for above nine hours after covering around 850 km and its extension to Rourkela should not be a problem. He also pointed out that the average speed of the superfast train is 35 km per hour which is well below the average speed of passenger trains.

He also sought extension of Ranchi-Delhi Garib Rath Express to Rourkela. This train runs on a new route via Daltonganj, Garwa Road, Japla and Nabinagar Road against the originally sanctioned route via Bokaro, Gomo and Gaya. Interestingly, in a RTI reply of 2011, the Railway Board had said it was done on the demand of RJD MP Ghuran Ram with approval from competent authorities.  

Tiwari also demanded extension of Tatanagar-Amritsar Jallianwalabagh Express to Rourkela, Hatia-Jammu Tawai Express and Tatanagar-Jammu Tawi Express to Rourkela.  Another interesting written plea of the Indian Railways for rejection of extension proposal of the Tatanagar-Amritsar Jallianwalabagh Express was route congestion with a remark that the extension may not be viewed favourably by passengers of Tatanagar.

Sources said frequency enhancement of Rourkela-Gunpur Rajyarani Express from three days to six days in a week was approved on October 27, 2017. But the implementation was done just five days ago. Also, there was a long-standing demand to extend the Raigarh-Hazrat Nizamuddin Express to Rourkela but it was extended to a separate direction to Sambalpur recently.