Chief Minister strongly opposed decision of the Railways to stop the operation of 23 trains passing through Chhattisgarh for a month

Raipur: Chief minister
Bhupesh Baghel has strongly opposed the decision of Railways to stop operation
of 23 passenger trains passing through Chhattisgarh, from April 24 this year.

On the instructions of chief
minister, the Additional Chief Secretary to the Chief Minister has written a
letter to the Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Railway Board urging to
continue the operation of local trains passing through Chhattisgarh.

Meanwhile, the
operation of total 23 express and local trains passing through Chhattisgarh has
been stopped for the next one month from April 24, 2022 through an order issued
by Principal Chief Operations Manager, South-East Central Railway, Bilaspur on April
23, 2022. All these trains pass daily via different rail routes in Chhattisgarh.
No alternative arrangement has been made for the passengers prior to the
closure of these train services.

Additional Chief
Secretary to the Chief Minister, Subrat Sahoo has written a letter in this
regard to the Chairman of Railway Board stating that operation of a total of 10
trains was stopped earlier as well by the order of Principal Chief Operations
Manager, South-East Central Railway, Bilaspur dated March 31, 2022. Out of
these 10 trains, 08 trains pass daily via different rail routes in Chhattisgarh.
The State Government made a request to keep the operation of the above trains
intact through a letter dated April 05, 2022. However, the request was ignored.

The Additional Chief
Secretary has also written in the letter that a major chunk of the passengers
in the state belong to the middle and lower class, who reach their destination
every day while traveling by these aforementioned trains. Due to the closure of
local trains, a large number of common people and students are facing
difficulties in their everyday travel. Stopping the operation of trains also
has an adverse effect on the journeys made during the summer vacations.

Keeping in view the
aforementioned conditions, the Additional Chief Secretary has urged Chairman
and Chief Executive Officer, Railway Board to cancel the order issued by
Principal Chief Operations Manager, South-East Central Railway, Bilaspur,
issued on April 23, 2022, with immediate effect. It has also been requested to
direct the railways to restore the operations of these 23 trains passing
through Chhattisgarh.