More Coaches, Premium Trains – How Indian Railways Plans to Help Passengers amid IndiGo Flight Chaos

New Delhi: The Indian Railways on Friday came to the rescue of thousands of passengers who are left stranded at major Indian airports amid IndiGo airlines historic flight operations failure, as it decided

to increase 116 coaches in 37 premium trains for the convenience of travellers.The additional coaches will be added in trains that are originating from major cities including Delhi, Mumbai, Lucknow, Patna, Howrah and Chennai.Railway officials in a statement said, "These trains originate from important stations such as New Delhi, Mumbai, Lucknow, Jammu Tawi, Patna, Howrah and Chennai, and provide connectivity to several big and small cities.”

Railways said that the facility of additional coaches will be introduced from the upcoming services of these trains and will continue till the airline problem persists.Earlier, the Northern Railway decided to increase 3AC and Chair Car coaches in four premium trains.Himanshu Shekhar Upadhyay, Chief Public Relations Officer, Northern Railway, said that one 3AC coach each in 12425/26 Jammu Rajdhani express and 12424/23 Dibrugarh Rajdhani express have been increased after experiencing a surge in passengers' travel needs.

"Similarly, one AC Chair Car coach each in Chandigarh 12045/46 Shatabdi express and 12030/29 Amritsar Shatabdi express have also been augmented," Upadhyay added.According to sources, the railways is ready to increase the number of all types of AC coaches in several premium trains due to a sudden surge in the passengers' demand."We are keeping a watch on the situation very closely. If the situation demands, we might run special fully air-conditioned trains on several routes connecting big and small cities so that passengers do not need to face inconvenience due to flight disruptions," a railway official said.

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Railways To Run Special Trains On Dec 6 and 7

Central Railway also announced that it will run six special trains on key long-distance routes on December 6 and 7 to clear the extra rush of passengers due to widespread flight cancellations across the country.Central Railway chief public relations officer Swapnil Nila said the special services will operate on Pune-SMVT Bengaluru (Dec 6), Pune-New Delhi (Dec 7), Lokmanya Tilak Terminus-Madgaon (Dec 7), Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus-New Delhi (Dec 6), Lokmanya Tilak Terminus-Lucknow (Dec 6) and Nagpur-CSMT (Dec 6) routes to clear extra rush of passengers. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fXT-aa9UdoU What IndiGo Airlines Has Hit The WallIndiGo, which controls about two-thirds of the country's domestic traffic and generally operates around 2,300 flights daily, cancelled over 1,000 flights on Friday.It caused chaos at major airports across the country, with frustrated passengers scrambling for updates and searching for their baggage. Many passengers vented out their anger on social media, and airfares also sailed northwards for many routes.With inputs from PTI