Jamshepur, June 24: South Eastern Railway announced on Thursday to continue running the Santragachi-Pune AC Special train for another two months.
The all-AC weekly train that goes via Tatanagar, was introduced on February 4 and was supposed to run till June 26. But, now the train will be available for passengers till August 28.
"The decision to extend the run of the train was taken keeping in view the huge rush of passengers. We have extended nine trips of the train," said an SER spokesperson, adding that if required the train could be continued after August 28.
The Santragachi-Pune AC Special (02822) leaves Santragachi at 6.30pm and reaches Tatanagar at 10pm every Saturday. It stops for five minutes at Tatanagar and reaches Pune at 2.45am on Monday.
From Pune, the train (02821) leaves at 10.30am every Monday and arrives at Tatanagar at 2.15pm on Tuesday. After a 5-minute halt it proceeds to Santragachi and reaches there at 6.15pm the same day.
The train, with three AC-2 tier, eight AC-3 tier coaches and two luggage vans, stops at Kharagpur, Tatanagar, Chakradharpur, Rourkela, Jharsuguda, Bilsapur, Raipur, Durg, Nagpur, Bhusawal, Kalyan and Panvel stations between Santragachi and Pune.
SER has also decided to continue running the Tatanagar-Visakhapatnam Express till August 28. The train was introduced in Deecmber last year as a winter special.
According to a new schedule released by the railways, the Up train (08189) would leave Tatanagar every Friday, from July 7 to August 25, at 1pm. It will reach Visakhapatnam at 5.25am the next day. The return train (08190) will leave Visakhapatnam at 5.45 pm every Saturday and reach Tatanagar at 10.45am the next day.
The train has several stops, including at Rajkharsawan, Chaibasa, Dongaposi, Banspani and Bhubaneshwar.
Chhotanagpur Passenger Association hailed the railway initiatives.
"Continuation ff both the trains will immensely benefit passengers. In the past we had also requested SER authorities to continue running both the trains," said Arun Tiwary, a senior functionary of the association.
