Srinagar: Amid widespread flight disruptions, the Kashmir train has come to the rescue of the stranded passengers.
With the IndiGo Airlines fiasco now stretching into its second week, scores of flights are being cancelled daily, forcing thousands of passengers to seek alternative routes to reach their destinations. Bookings for surface transport — including buses, cabs, and trains — have surged sharply over the past week.
To manage the mounting pressure, authorities have increased capacity across various modes of surface transport. The government has initiated special arrangements to accommodate stranded passengers, adding more coaches to trains and scaling up bus services.
According to Northern Railways, additional coaches have been deployed on several key routes originating from Jammu. “We have added an extra 3-Tier AC coach in Jammu Rajdhani and Dibrugarh Rajdhani. Extra coaches have also been added to Chandigarh Shatabdi and Amritsar Shatabdi,” said Himanshu Shekhar Upadhyay, CPRO, Northern Railway.
He added that passengers stranded in Kashmir were being facilitated through Vande Bharat services. “We have two Vande Bharat trains from Kashmir, which have witnessed a good response from the passengers following the Indigo disruption.”
The Jammu and Kashmir Road Transport Corporation (JKTRC) is also witnessing an exceptional surge in bookings. Showkat Ahmad, General Manager Operations (Kashmir), said their two Volvo buses have been running nearly full, reflecting a sharp rise in demand.
“The bookings have increased by nearly 30 percent. We have also tied up with other service providers to respond to the situation,” he said.
As such, the cab service providers too have scaled up their services to ferry the stranded passengers. “We get a good number of passengers these days. Those whose flights get cancelled choose cab services to reach Jammu, where they board the train to their respective destinations,” said Sajad Ahmad Mir, a cab driver.