Fog derails rail traffic, 20 trains cancelled

Our Correspondent

Ludhiana, December 2

Dense fog, which is engulfing the region for past two days, has hit the rail traffic hard with Railways announcing cancellation of 20 trains and truncating the scheduled run of a couple others for a period of two months.

Northern Railway officials said train Nos 02053/54 Haridwar-Amritsar-Haridwar Janshatabdi Express and 04537/38 Amritsar-Nangal Dam-Amritsar Express, 03307/08 Dhanbad-Ferozepur-Dhanbad Ganga Sutlej Express and 05733/34 Katihar-Amritsar-Katihar Amrapali Express would remain cancelled till February 28.

Further, several weekly, bi-weekly and other trains, including 04505/06 Rishikesh-Jammu Tawi Hemkunt Weekly Express, 04673/74 Jaynagar-Amritsar-Jaynagar (four days a week) Shaheed Express, 04923/24 Gorakhpur-Amritsar-Gorakhpur Weekly Express, 08103/04 Tatanagar-Amritsar-Tatanagar Biweekly Express, 02357/58 Kolkata-Amritsar-Kolkata Biweekly Express and 09611/14 Ajmer-Amritsar-Ajmer Biweekly Express would also remain cancelled till February 28.

According to Railway officials, the 04681/82 New Delhi-Jalandhar City-New Delhi Intercity Express would operate between New Delhi and Ambala Cantt with immediate effect till February 28.

It was also stated that operations of other trains could also remain affected during the adverse weather conditions due to low visibility. Safety of trains and passengers was foremost important for the Railways and could not be compromised at any cost.

Record collection from passengers travelling without ticket

Meanwhile, during an intensive drive against ticketless travelling, ticket checking teams of the Ferozepur Division of the Northern Railway checked more than 54,000 passengers during November and recovered a penalty of Rs3.75 crore from them, which was a record collection in a single month till date. Similarly, A TTE (travelling ticket examiner), Pramod Dhir, posted at the Jalandhar Cantt headquarters, recovered Rs16 lakh from ticketless travellers, which again was a record individual collection in the division.