SATISH HANDA
Although railways has suffered heavy loss due to lockdown declared all over in the country and all passenger as well as express trains cancelled and there is no movement of passenger as well as express trains in the country till lockdown lifted.
On the other hand Ambala rail division has earned handsome revenue worth over Rs 275 crore in this period since after March 25, 2020 loading foodgrains including wheat, rice, pulses, refined oils, sugar and other essential daily commodities from the railway stations in the division to other states including U.P, Bihar, M.P, Chhatisgarh, Rajasthan, Himachal, Jammu-Kashmir,Uttarakhand, Assam. Delhi and other places in the division.
According to Divisional Railway Manager G.M. Singh and Senior DCM Hari Mohan, after lockdwon was declared in the country, Ambala rail division along with the help of staff despatched more than 471 racks and 70 containers to various destinations across the country in this period, besides lifting loads of stocks including cement and other products from various sidings and earned heavy amount of revenue at the times when all railway stations in the division as well as in the country were seen having a deserted look in the absence of movement of trains due to lock down causing huge loss to railways. Not only this, railways had to cancel lakhs of reservation tickets booked by passengers to travel during lockdown period and had to refund amount worth crores of rupees towards fare collected from passengers.
DRM told media persons that two Annapurna trains carrying foodgrains comprising of 84 bogies each covered 1634 km distance from Ludhiana to Jalpaiguri in Assam in only 50 hours due to less traffic on the railway tracks due to breaks on the movement of passenger and express trains during lock down period.
