Assam Rail Passengers’ Association delegation meets Governor Gulab Chand Kataria

Demand to restart 21 trains withdrawn during COVID pandemic

STAFF REPORTER

GUWAHATI: A 10-member delegation of Assam Rail Passengers’ Association (ARPA) led by general secretary Dipankar Sharma on Tuesday met the Governor of Assam Gulab Chand Kataria at Raj Bhavan and submitted a memorandum on the situation of rail services in Assam and the Northeast, the problems faced by the rail passengers due to non-restoration of 21 trains withdrawn during the Covid pandemic and some other important issues.

The Governor gave a patient hearing to the points raised by the delegation and assured his intervention wherever and whenever necessary to improve the rail services in Assam. He asked the ARPA to provide copies of all memoranda submitted by it to NF Railway, Rail Board, the Railway Ministry and the state Government in the last few months so that he could apprehend the problems well and make a note of these to forward it the Union Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw.

In the memorandum, the ARPA stated that passenger train service in the NorthEast in general and Assam in particular was far behind compared to the rest of the country. There are about 21 popular passenger/mail/express trains which were withdrawn at the time of the COVID pandemic. Despite repeated appeals, the Railway Board and the NF Railway Headquarter have not yet restored these trains. Some of the passenger trains, though restarted, have been categorized as special trains. Popular trains like Brahmaputra Mail was arbitrarily short terminated at Kamakhya against the earlier destination of Dibrugarh town. Another popular train, Shatabdi Express between Guwahati and Dibrugarh has been withdrawn, thereby adversely affecting a large number of railway passengers. Before restoring the services of commuter trains, the Railway Ministry has started the Vande Bharat Express between New Jalpaiguri and Guwahati. Due to inconvenient timing of this premier train, there will be lack of patronage and withdrawal of the train may not be a distant probability.

The ARPA stated that there was resentment among people on introduction of this semi high-speed luxury train on single track (this train on single track will require several other trains to be stopped for additional time at stations to give passage) while the NF Railway has been denying additional passenger trains citing lack of path in NJP-RNY-GHY main line.

The memorandum further stated that after the electrification of the Railway tracks between New Jalpaiguri and Guwahati, people of the region were enthusiastic about the introduction of sub-urban EMU/MEMU to serve daily commuters to Guwahati. However, Railway Board and Rail Ministry have been ignoring this popular demand. Some of the proposals approved by the NF Railway are yet to be implemented at ground level. Rangiya Junction was approved by the NF Railway HQ as a stoppage for 12423/24 Rajdhani Express in the year 2009. Despite repeated reminders in the last 14 years, the Railway Ministry is yet to make Rangiya junction as stoppage for Rajdhani Express (12423 and 20504). This is a glaring example of Railway’s apathy towards the people of the region, it stated.

Similarly, train no. 12525/12526 superfast between Dibrugarh and Kolkata declared by NF Railway with much hype in 2019, is yet to be introduced. The new Gauripur-Bilasipara-Abhayapuri line was completed two years ago and goods trains are plying on the new track but the proposal to run passenger trains by the NF Railway is still pending at the Railway Board.

The ARPA delegation requested the Governor to instruct the General Manager of NF Railway to convene periodic meetings with user associations like ARPA and Assam Government’s representatives to speed up solving the problems and issues concerning the rail passengers of the State.

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