BENGALURU: To facilitate pilgrims heading to the Mahamastakabhisheka, the Bangalore Railway Division had announced the launch of 16 special trains from Bengaluru as well as Hassan to Sharavanabelagola on February 12. However, on Thursday it abruptly decided to pull the plug on four of them owing to less than 50 passengers on board each of them.
What is worse is that the cancellation of the trains was made public hours after the scheduled departure of two trains. Without even an apology, a terse press release from the PRO at 11.30 am camouflaged the poor patronage aspect and announced that four DEMU trains have been cancelled “due to operational constraints.” The cancellation would stand in the subsequent days until further information, it said.
While Train no. 06559 from Yesvantpur to Shravanabelagola was scheduled to leave at 5.15 am, Train no. 06561 was meant to leave from Sharavanabelagola to Hassan at 9.15 am. The other two cancelled trains, 06558 from Hassan to Shravanabelagola Demu Special had a departure time of 6.20 pm while 06556 from Sharavanabelagla to Yesvantpur had a departure timing of 7.20 pm. All of them have unreserved tickets only.
When asked to explain the decision to keep public in the dark too about them, the official defended it saying, “Not many were travelling. So, it did not affect much.”