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Local trains run after 4 months for long-distance passengers

Kolkata: Eastern Railway (ER) operated eight local (suburban) trains after a gap of four months on Saturday to help passengers who had arrived by five long-distance trains at Howrah to reach stations closer to their homes.

There were no buses or taxis available at the station due to the statewide lockdown on Saturday.

Though a few buses were provided at Howrah station during Thursday’s lockdown, the state government had announced on Friday evening that there would be no buses or other vehicles at Howrah station for passengers on Saturday to ensure lockdown protocol.

Eastern Railway also announced the decision to cancel all trains departing from and arriving at Howrah on Wednesday, the next announced lockdown in Bengal. Railway officials claimed they could not cancel the five long-distance trains on Saturday as they had learnt about the state government's inability to provide transport late on Friday.

“We received the communication about non-availability of buses at 7.30pm on Friday. While we immediately cancelled all day trains (that make round trips to locations like Patna, Bhubaneswar and the like), the special trains from Delhi and other places had already started and could not be stopped midway as this would have caused severe inconvenience to passengers. Finally, a decision was taken to operate local trains for those travelling to the suburbs. Four trains were run to Sealdah from Howrah via Bandel and Naihati and four more to Tarakeshwar. Some Kolkata-bound passengers travelled on the trains to Sealdah,” an official said.

The state government maintained it had been made it clear that no public transport would be allowed to ply and air or rail passengers were not exempt from the lockdown. The last time that suburban trains for common people were run by the railways in Bengal was on March 24. Though some special EMU trains are run daily, they are for railway staff travelling to and from their homes in the suburbs.

“Three long distance trains arrived in ER’s jurisdiction on Saturday. These included the special Rajdhani and Poorva Expresses. There was also a special train from Jodhpur that has the same timings as the Jodhpur Express. It was only after arrival of this train from Jodhpur that a decision was taken to run the local trains. South Eastern Railway (SER) also received the Falaknuma Express during the day,” the official added.

Both ER and SER have now announced cancellation of all trains that were to reach Howrah on Wednesday, the next day of the lockdown. A similar announcement will be made once the date of the next lockdown is announced. Some officials have tried to reason with the state to allow passengers to at least use private vehicles on such days.

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