Chief Minister Raghubar Das on Thursday urged the Union Railway Ministry to change the name of newly started Hatia- Ernakulam Express Train to Shaheed Bhagwan Birsa Munda Express so that people in South could also know about the sacrifices made by him during the freedom struggle. Das was flagging off the long awaited Hatia-Ernaculam Express train at Hatia Station in Ranchi on Thursday.
Hatia- Ernakulam Express (22837) will depart from Hatia Station at 6:15 pm every Monday and will reach Ernakulam at 10:55 am on Wednesday. It is a 36 hour journey during which proper care of passengers will be taken by the railway staffs present in the train. Presently, the train has 13 fully AC coaches having 3 AC- II and 10 AC- III ultra modern bogies in it.
The train will have only 24 stoppages during the 36 hour journey. Remarkably, the train will not go via Chennai but will reach Ernakulam via Kathpari and Coimbatore. The train will have all facilities including pantry car and green toilets.
Addressing the gathering at the station, the CM said that besides providing a great relief to those people who belong to the southern states, this train will cater to the needs of those people who go to Vellore for treatment. The CM also added that Jharkhand would soon become the maximum revenue giving State in this Country, once the mining of iron ore is started in Jharkhand. “Presently, Odisha tops the list with maximum revenue giving state in the Country,” said the CM
“Despite having maximum contribution in providing revenue to the Country, we are given old and rejected coaches in the trains starting from Ranchi. I have also talked to Union Rail Minister Suresh Prabhu in this regard who has assured that he will look into the matter,” said the CM.
According to CM, several projects with a tune of Rs 8,400 crore are being carried out in the State and he wanted that those pending projects gets completed soon as the State Government has already paid its share to the Railways.
The CM said that maximum work of Ranchi-Barkakana-Hazaribagh-Koderma of 203 km has already been completed and the train will soon run on this route.
“Work of Ranchi-lohardaga-Tori project is also on the verge of completion which will provide great relief to the passengers going and coming from Delhi saving at least 4 hours of their time,” said the CM.
CM also stressed on expediting the construction of Rail Over Bridges in the state including Birsa Chowk in Ranchi and Jugsalai in Jamshedpur. “Dhanbad station should also be included in the list of smart stations along with Ranchi and Bokaro,” he said.
Terming Hatia- Ernakulam Express train a long awaited train, Ranchi MP Ram Tahal Chaudhary demanded another new train to Haridwar via lucknow. “The dream of this train could be made true due to the initiatives taken by Chief Minister Raghubar Das,” said Chaudhary.
Rajya Sabha MP Mahesh Poddar, MlA Naveen Jaiswal, General Manager of SE Railway Ashish Kumar Goyal and Ranchi Rail Division DRM Anshul Gupta were also present during the programme.