Face2News/bohar.
The reply by the Railway Board to an RTI activist indicates that none of the Lok Sabha members from Punjab had approached the government to get Udyan Abha Toofan Express restored. The train was discontinued by the Eastern Railway on March 24, 2020.
The train, titled as Udyan Abha Express, had been flagged off to run on Sriganganagar-Delhi route by then Union Minister of Agriculture Bal Ram Jakhar at Abohar in the presence of then Railway Board Chairman Ashok Bhatnagar in 1994. The same was later extended to Howrah and renamed as Udyan Abha Toofan Express. It had 110 halts and 402 intermediate stations and proved very useful to hundreds of families from UP, Bihar, Odisha and other states who had temporarily settled in Punjab and Rajasthan for a living.(SUBHEAD)
RTI activist Davinder Pal has been informed by the Railway Board that the train has not been stopped completely but has been suspended due to technical reasons.
Giving specific information, the Board said no MP other than Sriganganagar Lok Sabha member Nihal Chand Meghwal had requested Railways to restart the operation of the train.
The reply said that Indian Railways had rationalized the new timetable in a scientific manner with the help of IIT Bombay. This rationalization process has been done keeping in view several other problems as well as better passenger amenities by creating maintenance corridor blocks, increasing the speed of train services and reducing conflicts in the existing time table. To make this process functional, the services of Howrah-Sriganganagar Udyan Abha Express train had been suspended.
In a letter on October 13, 2020, MP Meghwal had said that the 13007-13008 Udyan Abha Toofan Express train connects seven states including Punjab, Haryana, Delhi, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and West Bengal and Rajasthan. If there is any problem in the operation of this train, then 12333/34 Vibhuti Express running between Howrah and Prayag Raj should be extended up to Sriganganagar so that long distance passengers can get rid of the problem.
