In what has come as a big blow for Jharkhand, the Indian railway is said to have terminated the operation of eight pairs of train services operating on the routes of Jharkhand, Bihar and West Bengal. The railway cited that due to low occupancy of seats due to Covid 19. It was revealed after one Anuvad Chakravarthy filed an RTI before the South Eastern Railway.    

According to information provided by the railway, Ranchi-Patna AC Express is among the canceled trains.   Other canceled trains are  Howrah-Purulia Express, Purulia-Howrah Express, Kharagpur-Purulia Intercity Express, Purulia-Kharagpur Intercity Express, Tata-Lokmanya Tilak Antyodaya Express, Lokmanya Tilak-Tata Antyodaya Express, Shalimar - Adra Rajyarani Express, Adra - Shalimar Rajyarani Express, Tata-Ranchi Intercity, Ranchi-Tata Intercity, Jhargram - Purulia Birsa Munda Express, Purulia - Jhargram Birsa Munda Express, Kharagpur-Hijli EMU Passenger and Hijli-Kharagpur EMU Passenger.

While there is no sign of any resumption of these trains it will further create connectivity problems especially for residents of Jharkhand.  These trains also connect districts of Jharkhand. For instance, Ranchi-Patna AC Express passes through Ranchi Koderma, Hazaribagh Town and Barkakana. This was the only train that passed through Hazaribagh Town. Now only goods trains will be operating from the Hazaribagh Town station. In May last year, the Railways had declared Hazaribagh Town station as the 6000th station of India where a free Wi-Fi facility was made available for the passengers.

While the opposition has sharply criticized the withdrawal of trains, the railway said that that the reply of the railway was misunderstood.

“The BJP is in the Centre and the majority of MPs from Jharkhand are from BJP. But BJP MPs are unable to protect the interests of Jharkhand. We have seen how some BJP MPs claim big but actually, they are unable to serve the interest of people of Jharkhand,” said Congress MLA Dipika Pandey Singh.   

But a senior railway official clarified that RTI reply was wrongly interpreted. “During Covid 19 operations of trains were suspended. Services to a good number of trains were resumed but there are some trains which have not been started. The decision over these trains has not been taken. So to say that these trains have permanently been canceled, is wrong,” said a senior official of the Ranchi division of railway.