BHUBANESWAR: The East Coast Railway (ECoR) has decided to restore all mail/express and passenger train services to pre-Covid levels in the next few days, nearly two years after operations were restarted in a graded manner following the first nationwide lockdown.
Of the 84 long-distance mail/express trains, 83 trains originating and passing through ECoR jurisdiction will stand restored by the end of this week. Similarly, 20 of the 33 passenger trains will be restored shortly.
The trains, which had been running as ‘special trains’ with additional charges, too will cease and the special charges will not be levied. Some of the Express trains that are running as ‘special’ with special fares will also revert to original, pre-Covid fares.
A railway spokesperson said the ECoR has decided to restore the services of four pairs of Express trains that were originating from its jurisdiction and cancelled since Covid-19 lockdown/shutdown for the convenience of passengers.
Except for Bhubaneswar-Dhanbad-Bhubaneswar Garib Rath Express, all the originating trains from ECoR jurisdiction have resumed service. Efforts are going on to run Bhubaneswar-Dhanbad Garib Rath at the earliest, he said.
The Express trains to be restored are Puri-Digha Express from August 6, Visakhapatnam-Paradip Express from August 7, Visakhapatnam-Durg Express from August 8 and Puri-Howrah Shatabdi Express from October 2. However, it has been decided to run Cuttack-Gunupur Express as Passenger Special. It will resume service from Cuttack end on August 5.
The ECoR has also decided to provide facilities of AC-3 tier coaches in Bhubaneswar-Rourkela InterCity and Howrah-Titlagarh/Kantabanji Ispat Express from August 15. Both the trains will be augmented with one AC-3 tier coach each. The Visakhapatnam-Kollam and Visakhapatnam-Tata Express will run with LHB coaches.