Bihar Railways to run Holi Specials Trains

In anticipation of huge crowds in trains owing to the festival of colours Holi is celebrated on March 28-29, the South Eastern Railway has announced to run a pair of Holi special trains. The train will leave from Santragachi on Sunday and will return from Darbhanga on Monday via the Tatanagar railway station.

On Saturday, the office of chief passenger transportation manager announced the time-table of the special train. And according to that, the Santragachi-Darbhanga Special will leave Santragachi on March 28 at 3.40 pm. The train will reach Darbhanga the next day at 9.40 am. After an 18-hour journey on the train, in the reverse direction, Darbhanga-Santragachi Special will leave Darbhanga on March 29 at 9.10 pm and will arrive at Santragachi at 3.30 pm the next day.

Chief public relations officer of South Eastern Railway Sanjay Ghosh stated, "The Holi special train was introduced keeping in view to ease the rush of passengers." The train with four AC 3-tier, eleven sleeper class and two general second class coaches will have stoppages at Kharagpur, Tatanagar, Muri, Bokaro Steel City, Jasidih, Jhajha, Kiul and Barauni between Santragachi and Darbhanga.

Besides, passengers are required to strictly follow all the safety protocols before and during the journey in the wake of the second wave of Covid-19 cases. Moreover, with the festival around the corner, trains and long-distance buses, passengers, heading for Bihar, Uttar Pradesh and other destinations, have gained momentum.

However, there are no confirmed berths in several trains including Puri-New Delhi Purushottam Express which goes via Tatanagar. Railway sources said a similar rush has been seen in Bihar-bound trains leaving from Ranchi and Hatia stations. Bihar-bound buses departing Sitaramdera Bus Terminus have observed a rush of passengers since Friday.

In fact, over 250 buses leave for various destinations in Bihar and Jharkhand daily from the bus terminus, which happens to be the biggest in the entire Kolhan region.