BALASORE: Union Minister of State for MSME and Lok Sabha member from Balasore Pratap Chandra Sarangi flagged off the restart of Jaleswar-Howrah-Jaleswar passenger train on Friday from Jaleswar station after remaining off track since past 10 months due to Covid-19.
The train used to cater to the commuters of Jaleswar and its adjoining areas like Baliapal and Bhograi.
The locals of Jaleswar and adjoining areas depend on trains to commute for work and business purposes on a daily basis. In the absence of the passenger train, they were inconvenienced and had to pay extra to travel to Kolkata by bus.
After the pandemic situation came under control, they made demands to the Divisional Railway Manager (DRM) and General Manager (GM) of South Eastern Railway (SER), local politicians and district administration to restart trains again.
“We had received a positive response from Union Minister Sarangi regarding our request for more such passenger trains to be made operational in this route, along with a demand for a new train from Jaleswar to Bhubaneswar,” said Santanu Patnaik, a local.
Sarangi hailed the efforts of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, DRM and GM of SER for their efforts to restart the train service. Khagendranath Mondal, the station master of Jaleswar station, along with the BJP workers and locals were present on the occasion.
Mondal said the Jaleswar-Howrah local passenger train no-28002 and 28007 will leave from Jaleswar station at 6.10 am and reach Howrah station by 9.48 am. It will leave from Howrah at 4.50 pm and arrive at Jaleswar by 9.25 pm, covering around 200 kms both up and down daily.