RailEnquiry

NAGPUR: When a new coach is added to any passenger train, there is a lot of brouhaha, but the Central Railway headquarters has quietly decided to withdraw at least five coaches of Ajni-AmravatiIntercity Express from May 3.

From March 28, passengers failed to get a ticket for AC chair car, besides they also failed to get reservation for second seating coaches from May 3, indicating withdrawal of coaches.

Nagpur Central Railway public relations officer (PRO) PD Patil confirmed that communication to withdraw AC chair car has been received. However, he added there is no communication about withdrawal of two second seating coaches.

"It seems as reservation for both these coaches was not available from May 3, the decision must have been taken to withdraw them too," Patil said. "If it happens, the train will now be confined to eight coaches."

Sources said the three withdrawn coaches may be added to Pune-Mumbai Intercity express, which has a good occupancy. The 12-coach Amravati Intercity was introduced on September 8, 2008.

From day one, the train never ran to its capacity. Information sought by Avinash Prabhune under RTI revealed that in over three years from 2008, only 23,430 (5.08%) passengers travelled against potential of 4,61,460 seats, earning a revenue of Rs 23.62 lakh (4.25%) against potential of Rs 5.55 crore. The operating cost of the train was Rs 16.56 crore.

The Nagpur Central Railway also admitted that since its launch, the train occupancy was poor. "For the period from March 2011 to January 2012, occupancy for car chair was 3.91% and 5.91% for second seating," it said.

Sources said the local administration is upset over sudden withdrawal of coaches from the train. However, the Central Railway did nothing to extend the train to Narkhed or either utilize it somewhere else rather than keeping it idle after its arrival at Nagpur at 8.30am from Amravati.

The IRCTC was also in dark about withdrawal of coaches and when asked repeatedly, one of its executive Kavita Parashar said all matters related to trains, routes, scheduling, seat allocation etc was managed by the railways suggested to contact station master.