नवीनतम
IndiGo Crisis: Railways deploys 116 extra coaches in 37 trains
NEW DELHI [Maha Media]: Indian Railways has augmented a total of 37 trains with 116 additional coaches, operating over 114 augmented trips across the country in the wake of surge in passenger demand following widespread flight cancellations.
According to the Ministry of Railways, the decision was taken to ensure smooth travel and to provide adequate accommodation to stranded and waiting passengers as air travel disruptions led to a sudden surge in rail bookings.
Southern Railway (SR) has carried out the highest number of augmentations, enhancing capacity in 18 trains. Additional Chair Car and Sleeper Class coaches have been deployed on high-demand routes. These augmentations, implemented from December 6 onwards, substantially expand accommodation capacity in the southern region, the railway official said.
Northern Railway (NR) follows with augmentations on eight trains, adding 3AC and Chair Car coaches. These measures, implemented on Friday onwards, enhance availability on heavily travelled northern corridors, the Ministry stated.
Western Railway (WR) has augmented four high-demand trains by adding 3AC and 2AC coaches. The augmentations, effective from December 6, cater to strong passenger movement from western regions to the national capital.
East Central Railway (ECR) has strengthened the Rajendra Nagar–New Delhi (12309) service with additional 2AC coaches over five trips between 6 and 10 December, providing enhanced capacity on this important Bihar–Delhi sector.
East Coast Railway (ECOR) has augmented the Bhubaneswar-New Delhi services (Trains 20817/20811/20823) by adding 2AC coaches across five trips, improving connectivity between Odisha and the capital.
Eastern Railway (ER) has implemented augmentations in three key trains, adding Sleeper Class coaches over six trips on 7-8 December, meeting increased regional and inter-state travel demand in the east.
Northeast Frontier Railway (NFR) has augmented two important trains with 3AC and Sleeper coaches over eight trips each from 6-13 December, ensuring uninterrupted capacity for travellers in the Northeast.
The railway official further informed that, along with these enhancements, Indian Railways is also operating four special train services to further support passengers. The Gorakhpur – Anand Vihar Terminal – Gorakhpur Special (05591/05592) will operate four trips between 7 and 9 December. The New Delhi – Martyr Captain Tushar Mahajan – New Delhi Reserved Vande Bharat Special (02439/02440) will run on 6 December, providing fast and comfortable connectivity to the Jammu region.
To meet high demand towards the western sector, the New Delhi – Mumbai Central – New Delhi Reserved Superfast Special (04002/04001) will operate on 6 and 7 December. Additionally, the Hazrat Nizamuddin – Thiruvananthapuram Central Reserved Superfast Special (04080) will run one-way on 6 December, offering long-distance connectivity towards the southern region.
Meanwhile, Central Railway on Friday announced that it will run six special trains on key long-distance routes on December 6 and 7 to clear the extra rush of passengers due to the flight cancellations across the country. Chief public relations officer Swapnil Nila said the special services will operate on Pune-SMVT Bengaluru (Dec 6), Pune-New Delhi (Dec 7), Lokmanya Tilak Terminus-Madgaon (Dec 7), Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus-New Delhi (Dec 6), Lokmanya Tilak Terminus-Lucknow (Dec 6) and Nagpur-CSMT (Dec 6) routes to clear extra rush of passengers.
Western Railway (WR) will also temporarily augment additional coaches to four long-distance trains to clear extra passenger rush in view of the surge in travel demand, a spokesperson said.
He said that an extra AC 3-tier coach will be attached to the New Delhi0Lucknow express (Train No. 12429) on December 6 and the Lucknow-New Delhi express (Train No. 12430) on December 7.
Further, five AC 2-tier coaches will be added to the Mumbai Central-New Delhi express (Train No. 12951) from December 6 to 10 and the Sabarmati BG-New Delhi express (Train No. 12957) over the same period, the WR spokesperson said.
IndiGo, which controls about two-thirds of the country's domestic traffic and generally operates around 2,300 flights daily, cancelled over 1,000 flights on Friday, causing chaos and panic among passengers at major airports across the country. Many passengers vented out their anger on social media, as airfares also sailed northwards for many routes.
