Ranchi: After 10 months of closure, passenger trains will resume operations from the Ranchi railway division from January 2 onwards, a statement issued by the South Eastern Railways (SER) said on Thursday.
The statement said 10 trains — Ranchi-Dumka special, Tatanagar-Hatia-Tatanagar MEMU, Ranchi-Tori-Ranchi MEMU, Ranchi-Lohardaga-Ranchi MEMU (three trains), Kharagpur-Ranchi-Kharagpur special, Adra-Barkakana-Adra MEMU, Hatia-Rourkela Passenger and Hatia-Tatanagar-Hatia passenger — will ply from from Ranchi, Hatia and Adra railway stations.
The passenger train services were shut since March 2020 to comply with the nationwide lockdown norms. Though the railways introduced special trains and festival special trains since July, normal passenger train services remained grounded.
In Jharkhand, lawmakers from BJP demanded the restoration of the passenger trains since October citing the adverse impact on the local economy and the movement of thousands of workers, vegetable sellers and traders to cities like Ranchi, Jamshedpur, Bokaro and others. Ranchi MP Sanjay Seth had written to Union railway minister Piyush Goyal and the outgoing railway board chairman (cum CEO) Vinod Kumar Yadav demanding urgent reinstatement of the services.
While 10 passenger trains were restored, festival special trains will remain operational in place of the regular express trains up to March 2021 citing growing demand for berth occupancy among its passengers, the SER statement said.
Prem Kataruka, secretary of Jharkhand Passengers Association and member of the Zonal Railway Users’ Consultative Committee (ZRUCC), questioned the rationale behind the running of special trains.
“At a time when people are struggling with the economic woes caused by Covid-19 and the prolonged lockdown, what is the logic behind running special trains where passengers are being charged anywhere between 25%-50% higher than the actual price of the tickets? The festival special trains should be suspended at once and regular express trains should be resumed to provide relief to the passengers,” Kataruka said.