Title - Holy city is a hot holiday destination in summers

VARANASI: It seems that the holy city has become a hot destination even in the hot and sultry conditions. The mercury had already crossed 44-degree Celsius mark but the records of North Eastern Railways (NER) and Northern Railways (NR) point out that the city is a favourite destination for the summer vacations.The tourist season is off with the soaring mercury. But the reports of Cantonment railway station suggest that there is hardly any berth available in the long distance trains that culminate at the Varanasi station in the next one month. Also, one could be struggling to get confirmed reservation in sleeper or air-conditioned coaches in the various trains that arrive in the city from various parts of the country till June 15 next.An NER official said bookings are full in almost all the Varanasi-bound trains. The waiting list is quite long in some trains. Even the operation of nearly one dozen pairs of summer special trains from the station is proving inadequate to meet the increasing passengers load.

Over 100 trains, including mail, express and passenger ones, carrying over 80,000 passengers cross the Cantt Station daily. There is arrival or departure of trains every 15 minutes.

Station manager, Cantonment Railway Station, AK Pandey said that even RAC is not getting cleared in trains going towards Delhi, specially Shiv Ganga Express, Kashi Vishwanath Express and Gharib Rath. Similar rush is seen on Varanasi-Mumbai route.

The records also reveal that rush of passengers leaving Varanasi as source station is less. "The waiting list in trains for Delhi is around 80 while in trains leaving for Mumbai, waiting list is close to 155, which is very less as compared to the status of the incoming passengers. It is possible that people are returning to their families in Varanasi during summer vacations and the domestic tourists are preferring to arrive in the city during this time of the season," an official said.

People prefer to go to hill stations in summers but the only train connecting Varanasi with Dehradun is not seeing enough rush as the waiting list has not even reached more than 30 so far.