Special trains for Bahuda yatra and Sunavesha

Bhubaneswar, Jul 10 (UNI) The East Coast Railway(ECoR) has decided to run additional special trains for Sandhya Darshan, Bahuda Yatra and Sunabesa the presiding deities of Jagannath temple.

According to an ECoR release here, the authorities had decided to run 60 special trains for Rath Yatra festival but later increased it to 84.

Last year the ECoR had run 50 special trains during the festival.

The decision to run 34 more trains this year was mainly due to the tremendous response and enthusiasm received from passengers availing of special train services for Gundicha Yatra.

ECoR had also assured of running more special trains depending on public demand as also operational feasibility. Special emphasis this time had been accorded on connecting different parts of Orissa and Andhra Pradesh with Puri.

Places like Bhadrak, Sambalpur, Brahmapur, Dhenkanal and even Visakhapatnam, Vizianagaram and Palasa of Andhra Pradesh will now have better access to Puri.

It was expected that with this strategic planning, the loss in terms of total tourists by rail from West Bengal would be offset.

The emphasis had been to clear the rush of passengers at Puri through proper planning of trains in various directions.

Meanwhile, the badly affected tracks under Bhadrak-Howrah section had been satisfactorily restored, and as per the decision of the Railway Ministry, the 8409 and 8410 Howrah-Puri Sri Jagannath Express will run on normal direction from tomorrow.

The 2839/2840 Howrah-Chennai Mail also resumed its service from today on its normal route.

However, the 8477/8488 Puri-Howrah Utkal Express will run via Cuttack, Angul, Sambalpur, Jharsugura by passing Kharagpur and Rourkela to Haridwar from July 11 next.

Similarly, the New Delhi-Bhubaneswar Rajdhani Express will run on its normal route from July 15, while all the south-bound trains from Guwahati will start running from July 11.

The ECoR had to cancel as many as 42 long and short distance trains following several breaches on the track on The Kharagpur- Balasore section in the wake of floods and incessant rains in both West Bengal and north Orissa in the third week of May last.

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