Title - It's high time Central Railway revives Amravati Intercity

NAGPUR: The case of Ajni-Amravati Intercity is a classic example how the Central Railway is making a mess of it by withdrawing coaches instead of reviving the train that could be a stepping stone for passengers connecting various destinations.After TOI reports, experts in the field said instead of hitting the nail straight on the head, railways have decided to withdraw coaches owing to poor occupancy.However, divisional railway manager (DRM) Brijesh Dixit has reduced the timing of the train by 15 minutes. From Amravati, the train will now reach Ajni at 8.10am instead of 8.25am.Yet, the train schedule is bizarre. It starts from Amravati at 5am and getting autos for station becomes difficult and expensive. Besides, there are lots of fast trains around the same time from Mumbai and Pune heading towards Nagpur. The passengers get divided among all those trains.Despite demand for Ajni terminus, shifting intercity there was a bad move and showed officials' inability to understand passengers' mentality. If anything, this train must be started from either Kamptee or Itwari stations, with a 10-minute stop at Nagpur and 5-minute stop at Ajni. There should be no politics between the two railway divisions over it."Travelling all the way to Ajni from locations in north and east Nagpur not only takes time, but is also expensive. An auto charges Rs150-200 to get to Ajni from areas beyond Mankapur and Indora. This is more than the fare of intercity," says Pravin Dabli, member of zonal railway users consultative committee (ZRUCC), SECR. Cost calculations can show how the railways will gain from it.Secondly, from day one when the train started in September 2008, its schedule was not acceptable to people. The train starts from Nagpur in the evening and from Amravati in the morning. This is nonsensical. There are a lot of trains around this schedule heading towards Mumbai, Pune, and Ahmedabad. People simply hop onto whatever is convenient to their schedule and there is no real need for the intercity here."On the other hand, there are a few trains from Nagpur to Amravati in the morning. A train leaving Nagpur at 7am or 7.30am and reaching Amravati at 10am has a lot of potential. It seems as if the train was started merely to cater to the whims of ex-President Pratibha Patil rather than for any serious commercial viability," says RTI activist Avinash Prabhune.Another factor is that the train doesn't stop at Butibori, a growing industrial hub. "Illogically, express trains stop at places like Sindi Railway, Sewagram, Dhamangaon, Pulgaon and even Chandur Railway. Then, why not stop at Butibori," asks Basant Shukla, secretary of Bharatiya Yatri Kendra (BYK).The intercity will save lot of time for people from Butibori who currently have to travel at least 25km to go long distance. It will also help daily commuters between Nagpur and Butibori, says Shukla.The Central Railway should understand it has a competition from road transport. The intercity dawdles along, taking 3 hours to reach its destination. There is scope for speeding the train.

'Extend Amravati Intercity to Akola'

There is a demand to extend intercity to Narkhed but instead there is a great deal of business traffic between Nagpur and Akola. There is no fast train in the morning from Nagpur to Akola except Geetanjali Express that leaves at 7.30am and reaches Akola around 11.10am. There are only a few non-daily trains for passengers who want to go to Akola for business purposes. "Worse still, there is no train after 3pm from Akola for Nagpur that reaches Nagpur at a convenient time. There are non-daily trains that reach Nagpur at 1.30am. If intercity leaves Akola at 6pm and reaches Nagpur at 10pm, it will become much easier for passengers wanting to return the same day from Akola. "Amravati-Badnera has good road and rail connectivity and hence need of the hour is that intercity should be extended to Akola," says Amit Lohia, a lawyer from Akola. "The intercity to Akola will be more useful and profitable than extension to Narkhed," says Prabhune. The train will provide connectivity for trains for the metre gauge service towards Khandwa and broad gauge services towards Purna. It will also help visitors to Shegaon from Nagpur, who will not depend on road transport for their return trip.