By keeping the booking of Chalukya Express running from Dadar-Yesvantpur open till November 5 and from Yesvantpur-Dadar till November 3, the Railway Board is keeping commuters in a state confusion.
General manager of South Western Railway (SWR) in a press release stated that booking will be open for Dadar-Yesvantpur Express from Dadar till November 3 and for train from Yesvantpur till November 5.
Earlier, booking for Dadar-Yesvantpur-Dadar Chalukya Express was open only till October 31 as the Board wanted to extend the train, thrice a week up to Tirunelveli and Puducherry from November...
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As the Chalukya Express has been the only daily train connecting Hubli to Mumbai for decades, local organisations and members of Zonal Railway Users Consultative Committee (ZRUCC) had urged the Board to extend the same only after launching a separate train between Hubli and Mumbai.The same was running from Mysore as Sharavati Express every Thursday and to Mysore every Tuesday. According to the press release booking for Mysore-Dadar Sharavati Express will be open till November 1 from Mysore.
Responding to the demand, Minister of State for Railways K H Muniyappa had assured during inauguration of the new building of Hubli railway station on October 13 that he will take a decision soon after discussing with officials.
The train was also one of the three daily trains connecting Bangalore and Mumbai. As the Board has failed to come to any conclusion, it has instructed the SWR to open bookings for the train up to November 3 and 5.“The Board is playing hide and seek with passengers by closing and opening bookings. It has forgotten its rule of providing bookings before 90 days. It should decide about any diversions or extensions of any train well in advance to avoid confusions among public,” said Mayur Patil, who is waiting to book his ticket on the same train for last two months. Chief Operations Manager NC Sinha told Express that the Board has decided to extend the operations to Tirunelveli and Puduchery from November 6.
“As the Board had to change the numbers of the train, most probably this is the reason for the delay in the announcement,” said Sinha.