In view of rush during the forthcoming festive season, South Eastern Railway (SER) will introduce a special superfast train between Sealdah and Mumbai (lokmanya Tilak Terminal) that will pass through Tatanagar.
Officials at the South Eastern Railway headquarters at Garden Reach in Kolkata said the train, which would ply weekly, would run for about a month from October 9 till November 1.
A notification issued by the South Eastern Railway on Thursday stated that this was for the first time a Puja special train will run directly from Sealdah via Tatanagar and other railway stations of Chakradharpur railway division before the train reaches lTT, the final destination in Mumbai.
The Sealdah-lTT Puja Special Weekly Superfast ( 02255) train would leave Sealdah every Sunday (starting October 9) at 5.30 pm. The train will reach Tatanagar railway station at 10 pm and after five minutes halt it will head for its onward journey. The train will reach lTT the next day ( Monday) at 11.45 pm.
The down train (02256) from lTT will leave on Tuesdays (first return trip will be on October 11) at 1.20 pm. The train will reach Tatanagar the next day (Wednesday) at 2.15 pm and after a stoppage of five minutes the train will leave from Tatanagar at 2.20 pm. The special train will reach Sealdah on Wednesday at 6.30 pm.
In all the train will make four trips ( to and fro) between Sealdah and lTT. Apart from Tatanagar , the special train will have stoppages at Kharagpur, Chakradharpur, Rourkela, Jharsuguda, Bilaspur, Raipur, Durg, Nagpur, Bhusawal and Igatpur between the two destinations.
Several important trains travel via Tatanagar, including the high-profile Rajdhani Express and Duronto Express. The station sees a daily traffic of 90 mail, express and passenger trains, besides a footfall of more than 50,000 passengers.