Lok Sabha
In reply to a question raised in Lok Sabha, the Minister of State for Railways informed the House that introduction/extension of trains including Garib Rath services, is an on going process on Indian Railways subject to operational feasibility, resource availability and traffic justification. Indian Railways is alive to the needs of tribal regions and has proposed the following Garib Rath services which will serve these regions:
1. 2993/2994 Jaipur-Bandra (T) Garib Rath Express (Tri-weekly)
2. 2831/2832 Bhubaneswar-Ranchi Garib Rath Express (Tri-weekly)
3. 2517/2518 Kolkata-Guwahati Garib Rath Expres (Bi-weekly)
4. 2535/2536 Raipur-Lucknow Garib Rath Express (Bi-weely)
In reply to another question, Shri Velu stated that occupancy o Garib Rath trains from the period April 2007 to June 2007 has been more than 80 per cent in almost all the services. Occupancy was low on certain sectors when they were initially started.
The average occupancy of most of the super fast express trains varies between 50 per cent and more than 100 per cent.
With a view to improve the utilization of Garib Rath trains further the steps which have been taken, include changing of route, redistribution of reservation quota etc.
AKS/HK/CK/TR
(Release ID :29966)