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Tribune News Service
Jalandhar, July 19
The city railway station wore a deserted look with as many as 30 trains cancelled from Thursday and routes of several others provisionally changed for 13 days. A prior announcement in this regard had been made by the Ferozepur railways division in view of the non-interlocking work of tracks at the Amritsar yard which will go on till July 31.
While passengers of the morning Shatabdi Express on Thursday halted at Mannawala, near Amritsar, Shan-e-Punjab was scheduled to complete its journey in Beas. The evening Shatabdi, however, would be the only exception to complete its routine journey right till Amritsar as the repair work had to be done only in the daytime, railways officials said.
As per the plan, there are some Amritsar-bound trains that will finish their journey in Jalandhar, include Tatanagar-Amritsar Express and Indore-Amritsar Express, and some at Phagwara such as Jaipur-Amritsar Express. Some long-distance trains will be halting midway such as Howrah Express at Ambala, Sialdah-Amritsar Express up to Delhi.
Taxi operators make brisk business
Meanwhile, taxi operators outside the railway station had a brisk business during the time of the arrival of trains with stoppage in Jalandhar. Many passengers chose to take a cab or board a bus to travel to Amritsar.
Ranjit Singh, a taxi operator, said, “We have taken the new provisional time table from the railways authorities and are doing our business accordingly. We expect a better business in the next two weeks”. Most passengers were already aware of the changed route.
“We have already asked our relatives in Amritsar to pick us from Mannawala. We had read the news about the inconvenience passengers have to face due to the repair work. But there is a family function which I had to attend in Amritsar,” said Rajni, a Shatabdi passenger from Delhi.
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