High demand for migrant trains caused chaos: Rlys

NEWDELHI: After several Shramik Special trains bound for Uttar Pradesh and Bihar were delayed and diverted over the past two days, the ministry of railways said on Sunday that heavy train traffic to the region had caused congestion on the network.

“Most of the destinations in UP are around Lucknow-Gorakhpur sector and in Bihar around Patna. Of 565 trains on the run since yesterday, 266 were going to Bihar and 172 to UP,” the ministry said.

The statement came a day after a Gorakhpur-bound Shramik Special train from Maharashtra ended up in Rourkela, Odisha, adding two days and five states to the original journey. The ministry had on Saturday clarified that train was diverted via Rourkela to “clear congestion.” A migrant special on the same day scheduled to reach Bareilly in UP was diverted to Muzzafarpur , Bihar.

Several trains have had to be re-routed over the past two days. Officials said a single division, the North-Eastern Railway Zone, has had to cater to bulk of the traffic bound for the two states.

“To ease the congestion, a few trains were diverted via Mathura, Jharsuguda. Further, route rationalisation order has been issued to avoid congestion on routes with heavy traffic. Round the clock monitoring at Railway Board level, zonal railway level and divisional level is being done to ensure that trains are not delayed,” the ministry said. “The train running staff have also been sensitised to ensure punctual running of Shramik Special trains. With these efforts, the congestion position has eased considerably...”.

Indian Railway Traffic Service (IRTS) control rooms have been struggling with traffic management due to the congestion, with a surge in demand for migrant special trains towards UP and Bihar. Chairman, Railway Board VK Yadav on Saturday announced that the Railways will run 2,600 time tabled Shramik Trains over the next 10 days.

“The division is running more trains than it does even during normal times, more than 200 trains are running towards Eastern UP and Bihar leaving the Shramik train routes congested. There is a lot of demand for trains for these regions. It also takes at least 2-3 hours for the passengers to board and de-board that causes further delays,” the official said.

“Convergence of trains to these destinations caused congestion in the network. Further, increased time taken in de-boarding of passengers due to the various health and social distancing protocols at the stations is leading to congestion at terminals which further affects network congestion,” railway ministry said.

OFFICIALS SAID A SINGLE

DIVISION, THE NORTHEASTERN RAILWAY ZONE, HAS HAD TO CATER TO BULK OF THE TRAFFIC BOUND FOR TWO STATES — UP AND BIHAR