Rlys puts Rajdhani plan on backseat for Duranto trains

NEW DELHI: The Railways has put the plan to further increase the number of iconic Rajdhani trains on back burner for now, in a bid to accommodate more Duranto trains. Besides introducing three more duranto trains ��� Nagpur-Mumbai, Delhi-Lucknow/Allahabad and Mumbai-Ahmedabad ��� within a month, the Railways has planned to launch about a dozen such trains connecting important cities by the end of current financial year.

Railway minister Mamata Banerjee had announced 12 non-stop durantos in her last Budget speech. While the Mumbai-Ahmedabad duranto would be all air-conditioned, the other two would have non-a/c coaches as well. The move to introduce non-AC bogies in duranto trains is aimed at targeting passengers planning to travel point-to-point with a little lower budget.

"Rajdhani trains with all AC coaches, connect state capitals with the national Capital and cover long distance. As against this duranto will connect short-haul city pairs without halting in between. People who can not afford to travel in Rajdhanis would find duranto the next best option," a senior official in Rail Bhawan said.

"Duranto trains run faster than Rajdhanis and hence take less time. The fare is also lower compared to the Rajdhani trains. Given the scenario there is no need to run new rajdhani trains,' the official said.

Duranto trains take less time in reaching a destination compared to Rajdhanis as it does not halt in between. For example, the newly-run duranto between Delhi-Sealdah takes one-and-half hour less time compared to the Rajdhani on the same route. The fare of a Duranto is also lower compared to the iconic Rajdhanis.

The proposed new duranto trains would connect cities such as Pune, Amritsar, Cochin, Bangalore, Nagpur and Bhubaneshwar.