Amid rush, SER will continue to run spl trains

kolkata: The South Eastern Railways will continue to run special trains to manage the rush of passengers to popular holiday spots like Digha and Mandarmani.

They will continue to run the Summer Special trains between Howrah and Digha and back. It will be plied every Friday, Saturday, Sunday and Monday from July 1 to September 30.

08001 Howrah-Digha Special will leave Howrah at 2:25 pm and reach Dight at 5:50 pm on the same day. In the opposite direction, 08002 Digha-Howrah Special will depart from Digha at 6:25 pm and arrive in Howrah at 9:45 pm.

The special train will be making stops at Santragachi, Uluberia, Mecheda, Tamluk and Kanthi stations.

The decision to continue with the special train service comes as SER sees an increase in commuters to these places.

"The footfall has increased than last year. It is subjective to the destination that commuters are choosing to travel to," a senior SER official said. According to the official, booking points out to most people opting for Digha. The official also said that the pressure is manageable and in cases of rush or excessive crowding, the SER deploys crowd management teams. The general secretary of the Association of Tourism Service Providers of Bengal Kamal Kishore Gupta said, "Whenever there is the rush for trains to popular locations, it also indicates that tourism business is also faring well." As compared to last year's situation when the number of COVID-19 cases had massively increased around this time, the tour operators can see a 90 to 95 per cent jump in business.