Ludhiana: In a big relief for the businessmen and the citizens of the state, both passenger and goods trains will start its service from November 24. A lot of action will be witnessed at Ludhiana railway station as eight trains will be incoming into the state today and 11 passenger trains will be leaving. Baring two trains, 17 will pass through Ludhiana. Already two goods trains — one bound for Lucknow and the other for Delhi — were operated on Monday, which passed through Ludhiana.
Divisional railway manager (DRM), Ferozepur division, Rajesh Aggarwal, said, “Since September 24 due to farmers agitation, passenger trains, goods trains and the special trains had not been running. Keeping in view the recent decision taken by the farmer unions to allow the movement, we have initiated the plan to run several trains from tomorrow. We are thankful to the farmers who took compassionate view of the problems of the people of the state and accepted the request of the chief minister and allowed the movement of trains.”
Aggarwal also added, “Since Saturday, when we were intimated that farmers have agreed to allow the movement of trains, our entire division along with RPF and GRPF swung into action. Along with reviewing the security arrangements at railway stations, the checking of all the fitting of all tracks under Punjab and Jammu Kashmir was started by us, as the trains were not running for almost two months now. After the final inspections, which concluded on Monday around 12 in the afternoon, when we were fully satisfied with all the security checks and arrangements, we despatched two goods trains from Punjab, one of which loaded with gypsum left from Jammu for Lucknow and the other one which was empty was despatched from Jalandhar to Delhi.”
Welcoming the development, Vinod Thapar, chairman of the Knitwear Club, said, “We are thankful to the railways for its prompt action and we are hopeful that the situation turns to normal by the end of this week and all passenger and goods trains will start running to and fro from Punjab. However, we request the farmer unions to give up their condition of allowing the movement of trains only till December 10, as it would be detrimental to the industry.”
According to Harish Dua, president of the Knitwear and Apparel Exporters Organisation, “Starting of the trains is big relief for the industry as already we have suffered massive losses as thousands of crores worth goods and raw material has remained undelivered due to the non-movement of the trains. Garment industry was the worst sufferer, as business of not only exporters but those manufacturers who supply their goods within India too had taken worst hit. Running of trains will give push to the movement of the goods that are already stuck at ports, dry ports, railway stations and factories but for fresh despatches, it largely depends on what happens after December 10.”