JAMSHEDPUR: It’s good news for the people planning to celebrate the festival of Holi with their families and friends back home in Bihar.
With people rushing for reservation tickets to board the Bihar-bound trains ahead of Holi and waiting list in most of the trains virtually getting exhausted, the Chakradharpur railway division of the South Eastern Railway (SER) has decided to attach additional coaches to some of the trains.
On finding waiting list crossing the 170 mark in Tata-Chhapra Express, Tata-Patna South Bihar Express and Tata-Danapur Express train, the Chakradharpur division has decided to attach additional coaches to these trains.
“The additional coaches would be added to the Bihar-bound trains in sometime as we are just waiting for the formal approval from the Gardenreach headquarters,” said Kali Shankar Mukherjee, senior divisional commercial manager, Chakradharpur railway division.
Mukherjee, however, informed that there are no plans to run special trains to Bihar during the Holi weekend.
“Special train concept is for the Chhath festival only,” said Mukherjee.
“Despite zero-availability’ of seats in the three Bihar-bound trains, the mad rush of the people to book tickets on the trains plying through Bihar is increasing every day at the Tatanagar ticket booking center,” said a senior booking official at the Tatanagar computerized booking center.
Interestingly, the long-route trains such as Puri-New Delhi Purushottam Superfast Express, Neelanchal Express are also witnessing huge rush.
“Both the trains ply through Bihar so it is quite natural that people planning to go Bihar will book tickets on these two trains also,” said an officer at station manager’s office in Tatanagar.
The rush on the Bihar- and Uttar Pradesh-bound trains is likely to remain on March 17,18,19 and 20 as the Holi falls on March 20.
The Chotanagpur Passengers Association (CPA) has welcomed the decision of the railway authorities for deciding to attach additional coaches to the Bihar bound trains.
“We had requested the Tatanagar railway authorities to introduce additional coaches to the Bihar bound trains before Holi and now if they have decided to attach additional coaches it’s a welcome step,” said U K Srivastava, member, CPA.