BENGALURU: The “Covid Curfew” since Tuesday evening has pushed up the demand for train tickets from residents of West Bengal and Bihar, who are largely labourers, wanting to leave Bengaluru.The big waiting list and repeated enquiries at KSR and Yesvantpur railway stations prompted the South Western Railway to announce a special train to Danapur in Bihar on Wednesday morning (8 am departure) and one to Patna at night.
The Bengaluru-Danapur Covid special train was fully booked within two hours of opening reservations. SWR had earlier announced a special train from Bengaluru to Howrah on April 30 and one from Bengaluru to Tata Nagar on May 4.
Divisional Railway Manager A K Verma told The New Indian Express, “There was some rush noticed at Bengaluru and Yesvantpur stations for trains towards Bihar and West Bengal. We are announcing new trains in that direction.”Since April 24, SWR has been running five fully reserved weekly special trains, four from Yesvantpur to Howrah, Gorakhpur, Guwanahi and Danapur, and one from Mysuru to Howrah. The trains totally have 7,000 berths.
Many trains cancelled
The Railways has temporarily cancelled the following Express Special trains on different dates starting Wednesday: The Shatabdi between KSR Bengaluru and MGR Chennai Central cancelled both ways from April 28; Kochuveli-Banaswadi-Biweekly Hamsafar Special cancelled from Kochuveli end (April 29) and Banaswadi end (April 30); Coimbatore-KSR Bengaluru- Coimbatore cancelled from both ends on April 29; MGR Chennai Central-Mysuru-Chennai Central cancelled from both ends from April 29, Ernakulam-Banaswadi-Ernakulam Biweekly Superfast Express Special cancelled from May3 from Ernakulam and from May 5 from Banaswadi; Chatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus-Gadag Express-CSTM cancelled from April 28. Three pairs of MEMU trains have been cancelled from April 29. They are the Baiyappanahalli-Hosur-Baiyappanahalli, KSR-Hosur-KSR and KSR-Marikuppam-KSR.