Mumbai: The Indian Railways on Sunday (August 16) gave approval to a total of 162 special passenger trains for the Konkan region of Maharashtra to avoid rush for the Ganesh Chaturthi festival. Passengers travelling on the train will have to follow home quarantine for 3 days and other Covid-19 guidelines as per the government's order.
However, the first train that departed for Ratnagiri from Lokmanya Tilak Terminus (LTT) in Mumbai on Saturday (August 15) 8.30 pm had only 6 passengers from LTT and 25 passengers from Thane and Panvel. There were only 31 passengers in this train of 18 coaches.
Only 25 per cent seats have been reserved in the special trains till August 22. Each train has received bookings for an average of 400 passengers out of 1,638 passenger’s capacity. Due to the quarantine conditions and the late decision of the state government, some citizens left for their villages in private vehicles. If the state government had arranged these trains earlier, it would have received a good response.
It was announced that special trains would be released on the Konkan railway line for Ganeshotsav for the convenience of natives from Konkan region working in Mumbai city. However, these trains are getting very little response. According to Central Railway, four special trains left for Konkan on Saturday. 1,048 passengers had made reservations for these trains till 6 pm.
Train number 01101 scheduled to depart at 11.05 pm to Sawantwadi from Chatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus (CSMT) only 444 passengers had got tickets till 6 pm. Similarly, for train number 01103 scheduled to leave at 11.50 pm for Kudal from LTT, only 428 passengers had booked tickets.
Train No. 01105 leaving CSMT for Sawantwadi at 10 pm had only 122 passengers and train number 01107 leaving LTT for Ratnagiri at 10.30 pm had only 54 passengers. Although the first train is getting less response, it remains to be seen how much response the next trains will get.
