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Thursday, March 28 2024
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Vijayapura

Three trains introduced before pandemic, yet come on track

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Vijayapura: The fate of the three newly introduced trains, which were started to operate before the outbreak of the Covid pandemic, hangs in the balance.

The South Western Railway (SWR) had introduced two daily special express trains from Vijayapura connecting Yashvantpura and Mangaluru in October and November 2019, respectively.

After a couple of months, the railway authorities introduced an intercity express between Bijapur and Hubballi. In the span of four months, three new express trains were operating from the city.

The SWR had received a poor response for Mangaluru and Yashwantpur daily express trains, where over 50 percent of the berths used to remain occupied. Thereafter the railway authorities had extended the operation of both the trains by another six months in January 2020.

After the pandemic, all the train services were called-off. However, post-lockdown in different phases as many as eight out of twenty-six train services have been resumed, so far, from Bijapur. Among seven trains four are daily and three are weekly express trains. The passenger trains are yet to resume their operations.

According to officials of SWR, “The four daily express trains with limited seats have resumed the operations. Gol Gumbaz Express, Basava Express, Mumbai-Gadag express, and Hubballi-Hyderabad express trains are running daily. Even after the four-months of the lockdown, the people are afraid to use public transport and receive a poor response,” claimed SWR.

Meanwhile, the officials of SWR are yet to take a call on restarting the services of two special daily express and one intercity express that were introduced in 2019 and 2020 respectively. The people of Bijapur urge the authorities to resume the service to Mangaluru and Yesvantpur as soon as possible. These three new trains were introduced after continuous agitation of local people and various railway associations.

Ashok Hallur, president of Vijayapura Railway Action Committee, said that, “We believe that the SWR will reintroduce the new trains. If we look at the present condition of the railways, many trains are being operated with poor occupancy as the public preferring own or private vehicles instead of public transport. Let the railways take a call after six months in the welfare of the people of the Bijapur,” said Hallur.

E Vijaya, Chief Public Relations Officer of SWR said that “The train services are being resumed in different phases amidst the Covid-19 scare. With regard to the newly introduced trains, we are planning to restart the operations in the next phases,” stated CPRO Vijayapura.

 Photo Courtesy: Firoz Rozindar

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