Air Travel Crippled
New Delhi: Railways has started adding extra coaches to trains and scheduling special services as thousands of passengers stranded due to mass cancellation of IndiGo flights and a steep rise in fares of other airlines headed to nearby railway stations to reach their destinations.On Friday, it added 116 extra coaches to 37 trains to increase availability of accommodation and announced operation of six special trains over next two days. Officials said more special trains will be announced soon, and railways will take additional measures to transport 35,000 more passengers daily across routes.Sources said around 30 new special trains, each with 18 coaches, will be pressed into service in the next couple of days. They said these trains can carry over 30,000 passengers per trip. Officials said strategies are being drawn up to transport over 20 lakh additional passengers over next 10 days to deal with the crisis. Southern Railways increased capacity on 18 trains by adding extra chair car and sleeper class coaches on high-demand routes. Northern Railways added extra 3AC and CC coaches in eight trains. Western Railways augmented four high-demand trains by adding 3AC and 2AC coaches. “Additional coaches are being deployed to ensure travellers are not stranded,” said Himanshu Shekhar Upadhyay, chief PRO, Northern Railway. East Central Railway has augmented Rajendra Nagar-New Delhi service with additional 2AC coaches over five trips between Dec 6 and 10. East Coast Railway has increased capacity on Bhubaneswar-New Delhi services, and Northeast Frontier Railway has augmented two important trains with 3AC and Sleeper coaches over eight trips each from Dec 6 to 13.(With inputs from Abhinav Rajput)
