Neglecting Odisha, seems to have become a hobby for Indian Railways. It should be noted that a number of local trains operate in the neighboring states of Chhattisgarh,Jharkhand, West Bengal,Andhra Pradesh, Bihar etc. but not in Odisha. (A compensatory service operates between Balasore and Kharagpur only).
Taking the case of South Eastern Railway, this zone gets its maximum revenue from Odisha especially Sundargarh,Keonjhar and Jharsuguda districts but this region is the most neglected part in the whole country. The huge revenue generated by this region is utilized for the betterment of Jharkhand and West Bengal. Maximum number of EMU/MEMU /DEMU local trains operate in Kharagpur Division only.
While Chakradharpur Division operates 3 pair MEMU Local trains between Kharagpur and Tata; 1 pair of trains between Muri and Tata and another pair between Asansol and Tata , no such service operates in Odisha, from where this division gets its lion’s share revenue.
Following is the list of some local trains operating in South Eastern Railways
MEMU (Mainline Electric Multiple Unit) Passenger trains
• Howrah-Kharagpur : 116 kms. (2 pairs)
• Tata-Kharagpur :134 kms.(3 pairs)
• Midnapore-Howrah : 129 kms.
• Midnapore-Jhargram : 52 kms.
• Muri-Tata :104 kms.
• Muri-Ranchi : 65 kms.
• Tata-Asansol : 119 kms.
• Adra-Purulia :41 kms.
• Adra-Asansol :50 kms.
• Adra-Bankura : 53 kms.
• Adra-Midnapore : 155 kms.
• Balasore-Kharagpur : 116 kms.
DEMU (Diesel Electric Multiple Units) Passenger trains
• Digha-Santragachi
• Baripada-Rupsa-Balasore :70 kms. (2 pairs)
• Rupsa-Baripada
• Rupsa-Balasore
• Kharagpur-Jhargram ;39 kms
• Jhargram-Ghatsila : 59 kms.
It should be noted that Kharagpur-Midnapore MEMU Special train operates for a distance of only 13 kms. ! Also Rourkela-Sambalpur DMU has been officially downgraded to a pair of passenger trains i.e. Rourkela-Jharsuguda and Jharsuguda-Sambalpur.
Our ignorant leaders with their outdated mandates demand for DMU trains instead of demanding DEMU or MEMU trains. They are totally unaware of such commuter trains playing in different parts of the country. The burning example is that no such commuter train plies in Odisha part of East coast Railway , while many do ply in Andhra part of East Coast Railway.
A lot of fuel is wasted by diesel locomotives an also it caues a great deal of air pollution, while electric locomotives or units do not cause air pollution and the operating and maintainance cost is much lower than diesel locomotives. The electrical units can be stationed at Bondamunda since it has an electric locomotive shed.
It should be demanded to play MEMU trains between Rourkela and Jharsuguda & Rourkela and Tatanagar
Further Rourkela-Jharsuguda-Sambalpur Passenger should be upgraded to a DEMU passenger.
No comments:
Post a Comment