Bhubaneswar: Good news for rail commuters in Western Orissa: The Indian Railways has decided to run one of its existing Bhubaneswar-New Delhi Rajdhani Express trains via Sambalpur and Jharsuguda once a week beginning February 10, 2018.
The train will run as 20817/20818 Bhubaneswar-New Delhi-Bhubaneswar Rajdhani Express via Sambalpur City and Jharsuguda from Bhubaneswar February 10 and from February 11, 2018 from New Delhi, East Coast Railway (ECoR) sources said.
The move was initially floated by Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik who had urged Union Railways Minister Piyush Goyal to make arrangements to run the Bhubaneswar-New Delhi Rajdhani Express via Sambalpur to benefit train passengers residing in the western part of Orissa. Significantly, the railways and the state government received several requests from the people of western region suggesting diversion of this premier train.
As per the schedule, the Bhubaneswar-New Delhi Rajdhani Express via Sambalpur city and Jharsuguda (20817) will leave Bhubaneswar at 7:10am Saturday, reach Sambalpur by 1pm (approx) and New Delhi at 10:40am Sunday. Similarly, in the return direction, New Delhi-Bhubane-swar Rajdhani Express via-Jharsuguda and Sambalpur (20818) will leave Delhi at 5:05pm Sunday and reach Sambalpur by 3pm (approx) and city at 8:35pm Monday.
The train will have stoppages at Cuttack, Sambalpur City, Jharsuguda, Rourkela, Chakradharpur, Anara, Gomoh, Koderma, Gaya, Mughalsarai and Kanpur Central between Bhubaneswar and New Delhi.
However, on introduction of Rajdhani Express via Sambalpur City, railways has decided to cancel the existing 22811/22812 Bhubaneswar-New Delhi Rajdhani Express train via Bhadrak and Adra which runs Saturdays from Bhubaneswar and Sundays from New Delhi.
However, the Bhubaneswar-New Delhi- Rajdhani Express train (22811/22812) via Bhadrak will run twice a week– Wednesday and Sunday– from Bhubaneswar.
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