NEW DELHI: After the temporary suspension of two Garib Rath trains and rumours doing rounds that the government has discontinued the service, the Indian Railways has confirmed that there is no proposal to stop the Garib Rath trains.“Due to temporary shortage of coaches in Northern Railway zone, two pairs of Garib Rath trains — train number 12207/08 between Kathgodam and Jammu Tawi and train number 12209/10 between Kanpur and Kathgodam — were temporarily operated as Express train services,” an official said and added that following protests over the discontinuation of the services, the Indian Railways has decided to resume the Garib Rath services from August 4.
Currently, 26 pairs of Garib Rath trains operate across various railway zones in the country.
The main aim of operating the Garib Rath trains was to enable passengers to travel in AC III-tier class at fares, which were lower than normal. These trains were planned to be phased out by Indian Railways as well as replace them with express trains with higher fares.
The Garib Rath train was started in 2006 by then railway minister Lalu Prasad Yadav. The target passengers for this train service were middle and lower-income class. The first Garib Rath train was flagged off from Saharsa in Bihar to Amritsar in Punjab.According to a railway ministry report, the production of new coaches for the Garib Rath train has been stopped already putting a question mark on their continuance.
Considering that the present coaches are 10 to 14 years old and require heavy maintenance, the national transporter will have to incur a heavy cost.According to the report, the initiation of mail or express trains in these routes would mean the passengers would have to pay more.