Govt proposes Garib rath for tribal regions

New Delhi, Aug 16: Buoyed by the enthusiastic response of passengers to low-cost Garib rath trains, the government proposes to launch four more such trains for the benefit of tribal regions of the country, the Lok Sabha was informed today.

In a written reply, Minister of State for Railways R. Velu said the four proposed trains are Jaipur-Bandra Garib Rath Express (tri-weekly), Bhubaneswar-Ranchi Garib Rath Express (tri-weekly), Kolkata-Guwahati Garib Rath Expres (bi-weekly) and Raipur-Lucknow Garib Rath Express (bi-weekly).

Mr Velu said occupancy of Garib Rath trains during April-June this year had been more than 80 per cent in almost all the services.

Occupancy was low on certain sectors when these were initially started.

The average occupancy of most of the super fast express trains varies between 50 per cent and more than 100 per cent.

With a view to improving the utilisation of Garib Rath trains, he said a series of steps, including changing of route and redistribution of reservation, had been taken.

Mr Velu said introduction or extension of trains, including Garib Rath services, was an ongoing process on Indian Railways, subject to operational feasibility, resource availability and traffic justification.

Pointing out that the Railways was alive to the needs of tribal regions, he said the four proposed Garib Rath trains would link the tribal regions with the rest of the country through rail links.

UNI