Indian Railways has proposed to stop running of 17 pairs of trains on Eastern Railway division

Kolkata: Indian Railways has proposed to stop running 17 pairs of trains on Eastern Railway division.

According to sources, a proposal has been sent to the Railway Board for permanent cancellation of a total of 34 trains last week and waiting for approval.

"As instructed through several video conferences for permanent cancellation of Mail/ Express and Passenger trains by Railway Board, this Railway has identified for permanent cancellation of the following originating-destination passenger trains in this Railway. This has been done keeping in mind creation of freight/ maintenance corridor, trains of low average speed with several stoppages and low patronization. This cancellation of trains will obviously increase obviously increase mobility and create more line capacity," read the letter.

The list of trains includes Howrah-New Jalpaiguri Weekly AC Express, Sealdah-Sitamari Express, Kolkata-Patna Express, Howrah-Amritsar Express, Howrah-Srigangasagar Express, Sealdah-Rampurhat Tri-Weekly Intercity Express and others.

However, the Railway Ministry had earlier decided to bring in private operators to run passenger trains and contemplating to take up as many as 150 trains in the first phase.