Vishwas Dass
Post News Network
Bhubaneswar, Feb 22: Direct trains from Bhubaneswar and Puri to various places in the country are high on the list of priorities of railway passengers, who are banking on the railway budget 2015-16 for the fulfillment of this demand.
The dearth of trains has forced people to change trains frequently to travel to some metro cities.
As such, people have demanded the introduction of direct trains to destinations such as Jammu Tawi and Goa, and an increase in the number of trains going to Mumbai, Bangalore, Shirdi, Allahabad, Gaya, Puducherry, Lucknow and Pune.
East Coast Railway (ECoR) sources said there is an urgent need to connect Puri with Katra and Jammu Tawi stations in Jammu and Kashmir, as a lot of people from across Orissa have to go either to New Delhi or t oKolkata to get direct trains bound to Vaishno Devi. This poses a lot of hardships to people and adds to the time taken to reach the destination.
The Howrah-Vasco Da Gama train to Goa passes through Bhubaneswar but is overcrowded.
Besides, there is a need to introduce a Bhubaneswar-Lucknow train via Sambalpur, Gaya and Allahabad to benefit people from western Orissa, according to sources.
At present, the Puri-New Delhi Neelachal Express is the only service that passes through Lucknow and Allahabad stations.
“Allahabad is considered to be an important holy city for us and if we want to go on a pilgrimage, there is no train from Sambalpur. We thus have to take trains from Tatanagar, Dhanbad or Howrah,” said a passenger, Biswajeet Mohasupkar.
There is only one weekly train for Shirdi, Puducherry and Guwahati from Bhubaneswar and Puri and the frequency of the service needs to be increased.
Mansi Rani Hansdah, another passenger, also said the Bhubaneswar-Lok Manya Tilak, Bhubaneswar-Yeswantpur, Puri-Guwahati, Bhubaneswar-Chennai and Bhubaneswar-Rameswaram services should be made daily instead of weekly.
The frequency of a few intra-state trains should also be increased, said passengers.