Railways continuing special trains for stranded pilgrims

Indian Railways is continuing its efforts for the evacuation of passengers stranded in Uttarakhand.

Railway Minister Mallikarjun Kharge has been reviewing the arrangements regularly with the Railway Board and giving directions for the best possible arrangements, a government release said here.

Northern Railway and its Moradabad division have fully geared up for making appropriate arrangements. Uttarakhand falls mostly under Moradabad railway division.
According to the Ministry, special trains have been running regularly since June 20.

"Two specials ran on June 20th, three specials ran on June 21 and one special ran on 22nd June," it said.

One special train from Haridwar will depart tonight and stop at Roorkee, Muzaffarnagar, Meerut, Ghaziabad, Hazarat Nizamunddin, Mathura, Sawai Madhopur, Kota, Ratlam, Godhra, Vadodara, Surat and Borivali enroute to Mumbai Central, the release said.

Passengers who were stranded in the flood-affected area are allowed to travel by the special trains from Haridwar and Dehradun free of charge, the railways said.

Additional coaches have also been arranged to accommodate flood-affected passengers, the Railways said.

Rail officers are camping at Rishikesh, Dehradun and Haridwar stations and coordinating with authorities of state government. They are ensuring proper travel and monitoring availability of passenger conveniences at these stations.

Arrangement has been done for revalidation of tickets of those passengers who were stranded in flood-affected areas.

Doctors and paramedical staff have been deployed with adequate provisions to meet with any exigencies at these stations round-the-clock.

A task force has been set up at the level of Railway Board under Board Chairman Vinay Mittal to monitor the situation.