Chennai-Delhi "Garib Rath" from Feb 21

Chennai, Feb 18 (UNI) The much-awaited Southern Railway's first Chennai-Delhi ''Garib Rath'' will be flagged off by Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M Karunanidhi on February 21 from Chennai Central Railway station, Minister of State for Railways R Velu said.

Informing this to UNI over phone from New Delhi, he said Railway Minister Lalu Prasad was supposed to come for the inaugural ceremony for the fully airconditioned peoples' train, but due to his preoccupation with the preparation of the railway budget, he would not come to the function on that day.

He said the Chennai-Delhi Garib Rath would run on Saturdays and efforts were on to introduce the fourth ''Garib Rath'' between Mumbai and Delhi shortly.

The first Garib Rath train between Amritsar and Saharsa in Bihar and the second between Patna-Delhi introduced some months back had evoked a tremendous response, Mr Velu said.

To a question, he said as AC-III tier brought a huge demand for AC journey compared to AC II tier, the Garib Rath was introduced to bring down the fare by at least 25 per cent, against AC-III tier travel.

The ''Garib Rath'' with 18 coaches, will have 12 compartments with sleeping accommodation, four sitting and two special coaches with facilities for physically-challenged besides guards, generators and crew, he added.

MORE UNI