E-Paper
ECR suspends 23 trains in state Cites poor occupancy and an explosion in Covid cases
PATNA The Eastern Central Railway (ECR) has announced suspension of 23 pair of passenger trains, including those bound for Varanasi in Uttar Pradesh, citing poor occupancy and need to check the spread of coronavirus amid a massive surge in cases
PATNA
The Eastern Central Railway (ECR) has announced suspension of 23 pair of passenger trains, including those bound for Varanasi in Uttar Pradesh, citing poor occupancy and need to check the spread of coronavirus amid a massive surge in cases.
“Movement of 23 pair of special passenger trains for short distances would stand cancelled from April 29 till further notice owing to poor occupancy and with a view to curbing the spread of Covid,” said Rajesh Kumar, chief public relations officer, ECR. He said no decision had been taken so far with regard to movement of long-distance express trains.
ECR officials said the railway board was monitoring bookings/reservations made for long-distance trains and operation of some of the express trains might also be regulated for want of required number of passengers on them. “Trains passing through Bihar are facing crisis of passengers. Still, they are being run for convenience of the people,” said an official.
The trains, whose operation would be suspended, include Patna-Gaya, Patna-Deen Dayal Upadhyay, Muzaffarpur-Patliputra, Muzaffapur-Narkatia, Muzaffarpur-Raxaul, Patna-Barauni, Samastipur-Muzaffarpur, Patna-Danapur-Rajgir intercity, Patna-Bhabua intercity, etc.
Oxygen Express skips Bihar
The much-talked about initiative of the Indian Railways to transport liquid medical oxygen through Oxygen Express trains would not help Bihar even as hospitals in Patna and in rest of the state are reeling under severe shortage of oxygen. The CPRO said the Oxygen Express trains were not meant to carry liquefied oxygen to Bihar.
In the absence of adequate supply of liquefied medical oxygen, authorities in the state have been striving hard to restore operation of defunct oxygen refilling plants or enhance supplying capacity of existing oxygen generation plants and refilling centres across the state.
State health minister Mangal Pandey, who had on April 20 claimed that crisis of medical oxygen would be sorted out soon, refused to respond. Talking to media persons, the minister had claimed the state would have sufficient supply of oxygen once the Oxygen Express trains became operational.
Covid fund for rly staff
The ECR has set up a Covid fund to help its staff battle with the pandemic, which left at least 50 railway employees dead in the last one year.
Kumar said as many as 3,884 employees and officials of ECR had contracted Covid and of them, 1,891 are still under treatment. Efforts are on to set up Covid control helpline centres at all divisions of the ECR.
Unprecedented rise in Covid infections
Bihar has been witnessing a massive surge in Covid cases over the past one week. “About 10,000-12,000 people are being detected positive for coronavirus everyday across the state. Around 70-90 of them are dying daily. This is official figure. The actual may be many times more,” said Gujan Patel, the Youth Congress chief of Bihar.
Curbs announced on market and movement of people by the state government and individuals’ preference to stay indoors to avoid contracting the disease have also resulted in check of people’s movement. With night curfew clamped all over the state, a majority of people are not venturing out for long hours.
