Gujjar agitation adds to woes of rail passengers

Tribune News Service

Jalandhar, February 10

There is no respite for rail passengers travelling on long-route express and mail trains.

After suffering from disrupted rail traffic due to adverse weather conditions in the region, now the agitation by Gujjars has thrown the railway traffic out of gear.

A total of 35 trains have either been cancelled or running late. Those passengers who are unaware of the erratic run of trains are forced to spend their nights at platforms. In addition, some of the trains have even been cancelled up to March. The passengers mostly belong to families of Army personnel, migrants and local commuters.

Among the long routes trains affected due to the Gujjar agitation were Mumbai Central to Amritsar Junction (Golden Temple Mail 12903), Mumbai Central to Firozepur Cantt (FZR Janta Exp 19023), Swaraj Express (12471), Paschim Express (12925) and Indore Junction to Jammu Tawi (22941). These trains have been cancelled for February 10, 11, 12 and 13.

As per the Deputy Superintendent at railway station, long-route trains cancelled up to the first week of March due to bad weather and reconstruction works are: Amritsar-Katiahar Express (5708) ASR-GKP Superfast Express (22424), GKP-ASR Superfast Express, Asr-Lku Express (14616), Lku-Asr Express (14615), ASR-SHC Janseva Exp (15210) and Shaheed Express (14674).

Local trains: Jalandhar City (JUC) and Hoshiarpur (74912) Hoshiarpur and Jalandhar City (74911), JUC- ASR DMU (74643), Jalandhar City-Ludhiana DMU (74648), Jalandhar City-Nakodar DMU (74942) have also been cancelled up to March 3.

On Sunday, 12 trains were cancelled, five were rescheduled and others were running behind schedule. According to railway officials, Chandigarh-Amritsar-Chandigarh Intercity Express (12241/42), Saharsa-Amritsar-Saharsa Jansewa Express (15209/10), Katihar-Amritsar-Katihar Amrapali Express (15707/08), Jammu Tawi-Kolkata Sealdah Express (13152), Jammu Tawi-Bathinda Express (14502), Amritsar-Jaynagar Shaheed Express (14674) and Amritsar-Ajmer Express (19614) were cancelled for the day.

Previously, around 15 trains were late for about two-six hours. These include Bandra Terminus-Shri Mata Vaishno Devi Katra Swaraj Express (12471), Tatanagar-Jammu Tawi Muri Express (18101), Jammu Tawi-Ajmer Pooja Express (12414), Delhi-Jammu Tawi Shalimar Express (14645), Indore-Shri Mata Vaishno Devi Malwa Express (12919), New Delhi-Amritsar Shane-Punjab Express (12497), CST (Mumbai)-Amritsar Dadar Express (11057), Tatanagar-Amritsar Jallianwala Bagh Express (18103), Howrah-Amritsar Express (13049), Varanasi-Jammu Tawi Begumpura Express (12237), Howrah-Amritsar Mail (13005), Bilaspur-Amritsar Chhattisgarh Express (18237), Guwahati-Jammu Tawi Amarnath Express (15653), Saharsa-Amritsar Garib Rath (12203), Nanded-Amritsar Sachkhand Express (12715).