The long-pending demand of extending Bhopal-New Delhi Shatabdi Express up to Habibganj railway station has been accepted on the first day of the two-day all India railway conference for chief operating managers (COMs) in the State Capital on Wednesday.
Member, Railway Board (Traffic), DP Pandey said that the Shatabdi Express would terminate at Habibganj station from the month of July and the same would be included in the new time table which will come out in July.
The only thing which has to be worked out is the time which would be required to provide to adjust the extension and discussion on the time is going on which would be concluded soon. The decision came after several rounds of discussions and after several protests by locals and leaders.
Earlier, after the instructions made by the railway board, Shatabdi Express was extended twice on a trial basis by the Bhopal railways and in the trials it was found an additional time of 30 minutes would be required to adjust the extension.
Along with the good news, Pandey shared his concerns about continuing the AC double-decker train between Indore and Bhopal and said that due to its mounting financial losses which have been reported after fewer passengers were interested in availing the services, it had become hard to continue with the services. Based on the conditions, the railways would decide to continue the services on the evaluation in the next 2-3 months.