Wait till March to catch a ride on the country's first air-conditioned double-decker train.
The Eastern Railway has temporarily suspended the Dhanbad-Howrah AC Double-decker Express (both Up and Down) from January 26 to March 1 due to heavy losses because of low occupancy rate, triggering fears among passengers that the train will be withdrawn for good.
The railways, which had earlier suspended the two-tier train from December 26, 2014, to January 24 this year on the pretext of foggy weather, however, denied any such plan.
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train has been temporarily suspended due to huge losses incurred by the railways. But there has been no talks of permanently withdrawing the train as of now," chief public relations officer of Indian Railways (eastern zone) R.N. Mahapatra told The Telegraph.
Speaking about the low occupancy rate on the double-decker express, Mahapatra said at times, less than 70 passengers take the train, which has a seating capacity of 640.
The losses, thereby, come to around Rs 11 lakh every day, sources said.
"We think that the occupancy is low because of inappropriate timings. We have sought guidelines from the Railway Board whether we should continue with the losses and operate the train or make some changes in the schedule," Mahapatra said.
The train leaves Howrah at 8.35am and reaches Dhanbad at 12.50pm. On its return journey, the train departs from the coal capital at 6.30pm and reaches Howrah at 10.40pm.
Mahapatra pointed out that train timings were usually altered in July, but an exception might be made for the double-decker in view of the huge losses incurred every day.
"A passenger from Dhanbad will not get any public transport if he reaches Howrah at 10.40pm. Similarly, someone who is coming from Calcutta will not be able to do any official work after reaching Dhanbad at 12.50pm," said president of Federation of Dhanbad Zilla Chamber of Commerce and Industry Rajiv Sharma.
He added that they would suggest that the train be extended till Bokaro and run during morning hours.
Echoing him, president of Bokaro Chamber of Commerce and Industry Sanjay Vaid said, "Bokaro has no direct train to Calcutta in the morning. We will soon send a letter to the Union railway minister."
The demand was also supported by Dhanbad MP P.N. Singh. "I made a similar plea with Union minister Suresh Prabhu in a letter about a fortnight ago."
The double-decker train was launched amid much fanfare on October 1, 2011, from Howrah. The train always faced the problem of low occupancy and it only aggravated over the years
EXCERPT TAKEN FROM THE TELEGRAPH CALCUTTA 26TH JANUARY 2015