Ludhiana: Northern Railways to ply 4 special trains to handle Holi rush

In order to facilitate heavy rush of passengers during in view of Holi, Northern Railways has introduced four special festival trains which will ply through or from Ludhiana Station

In order to facilitate heavy rush of passengers during in view of Holi, Northern Railways has introduced four special festival trains which will ply through or from Ludhiana Station.

All trains will now ply with general coaches from March 15, which will help railway authorities manage the heavy rush expected during Holi week. (Representative image)

The trains include Amritsar-Patna Junction AC reserved Superfast Gati Shakti Festival Special Express (04076/04075); Amritsar-Banmankhi Junction Reserved Festival Special Express (04078/04077); Anand Vihar-Udhampur AC Special Express Train (04053/04054) and Shri Mata Vaishno Devi Katra-New Delhi Festival Special Express Train (04672/04671)

After normalcy was restored in rail traffic from March 1 due to decline in Covid cases and change in weather, around 200 trains are now plying through or from Ludhiana.

Rail traffic was earlier restored in August last year but 25 long route trains were cancelled (till February 28) due to the foggy weather in November last year, causing a lot of inconvenience to the public.

Moreover, all trains will now ply with general coaches from March 15, which will help railway authorities manage the heavy rush expected during Holi week.

“Now since the general coaches have been allowed, there won’t be any problem in accommodating the passengers during Holi. Moreover, there are enough trains that ply from Ludhiana to Bihar or Uttar Pradesh as maximum migrants travel during the festival”, said a senior railway official.

Meanwhile, a few trains plying through or from Ludhiana will remain cancelled and over 10 trains will be short terminated due to doubling of track work to be initiated between Madhavpur Station and Kathua Station for four days from March 12 to March 15.