South Eastern Railway (SER) successfully beat the huge rush of passengers in various long-distance mail and express trains last month by adding maximum number of coaches and, in the process, created an all-time record.
According to statistics available with Garden Reach, the Calcutta-based headquarters of SER, a total of 886 coaches were added to various trains (Up and Dn) in March, surpassing the previous highest record of 571 coaches in November 2012.
Maximum number of coaches, 804, were attached from Santragachi depot of Kharagpur division, which maintains the maximum number of long-distance trains.
Ranchi and Hatia added 20 coaches while Tatanagar and Rourkela together accounted for 62 coaches.
SER has four railway divisions - Chakradharpur, Ranchi, Kharagpur and Adra - spread across the three states of Bengal, Jharkhand and Odisha.
Speaking to The Telegraph over phone from Calcutta, an SER spokesperson said: "As many as 37,700 additional seats were provided in reserved category and 38,600 in unreserved sector, which are all-time high figures. The introduction of such a huge number of extra coaches helped accommodate waitlisted passengers, who were able to reach their destinations without any hassle."
He went on to add that the record was achieved as a result of a special initiative taken by SER to optimise the utilisation of coaches and attach extra coaches on a daily basis to trains that had long waiting lists. "The drill involved identifying the trains on the basis of the waiting lists and thereafter attachment of coaches was undertaken," the official said.
Some of the popular mail and express trains that regularly received extra coaches in March were Howrah-Ahmedabad Express, Howrah-Pune Azad Hind Express, Howrah-Mumbai Duronto Express (all three pass through various stations of Chakradharpur division, including Tatanagar).
The others include Shalimar-Trivandrum Express, Shalimar-Nagercoil Express, Howrah-Pune Duronto Express, Howrah-Yeswantpur Duronto, Howrah-Digha Tamralipta Express, Howrah-Digha Kandari Express, Howrah-Puri Dhauli Express and Howrah-Yeswantpur Express.
The spokesperson added that in April, May and June, the SER has planned to run 89 pairs of summer special trains from Howrah, Santragachi, Tatanagar and Ranchi.
Extra coaches will be added depending on the demand.
