India’s largest airline IndiGo faced another day of severe disruption as hundreds of its flights were cancelled across the country. The carrier scrapped more than 550 flights in a single day, a scale of interruption never seen in its 20 year history. The chaos left thousands of passengers stranded at airports for hours with no clear timelines and no alternative arrangements. Many described the experience as nothing short of a nightmare.
The ripple effect pushed an unexpected surge of passengers towards the railways. In response, railway zones across the country moved quickly to reinforce travel capacity. A total of 116 additional coaches were attached to 37 trains. Another 114 extra trips were rolled out to ease the pressure on high demand routes.
The South Central Railway introduced two special trains to manage heavy crowds. One service, numbered 07150, leaves Hyderabad tonight at 8.25 pm and reaches Lokmanya Tilak Terminus in Mumbai tomorrow at 3 pm. The second service operates between Chennai Egmore and Charlapalli. Train number 06019 departs from Chennai tonight at 11.55 pm and arrives in Charlapalli on Sunday evening. Its return service, numbered 06020, leaves Charlapalli on Sunday night at 11.38 pm and reaches Chennai the next day.
The Southern Railway took the lead by adding chair car and sleeper class coaches to 18 trains. Northern Railway followed with extra three tier AC and chair car coaches on eight trains. Western Railway strengthened four of its busiest trains with additional two tier and three tier AC coaches.
In the East Central Railway zone, the popular Rajendra Nagar to New Delhi Express received extra two tier AC coaches. These coaches will be available for five trips between now and December 10. The East Coast Railway also enhanced its Bhubaneswar to New Delhi services with additional AC coaches for five trips. Eastern Railway added sleeper coaches to three trains, which will run with extra capacity on December 7 and 8.
The North East Frontier Railway stepped up as well. It attached additional three tier AC and sleeper coaches to two key trains. These services will run with the extra capacity until December 13.
Along with extra coaches, several special trains were also launched on high traffic routes. The Gorakhpur to Anand Vihar Terminal special train (05591/05592) will run four trips between December 7 and 9. A Vande Bharat special between New Delhi and Captain Tushar Mahajan Udhampur (02439/02440) has also been added. The New Delhi to Mumbai Central Superfast Special (04002/04001) will run today and tomorrow. Another superfast special between Hazrat Nizamuddin and Thiruvananthapuram Central (04080) has also been introduced.
As the IndiGo meltdown stretches into another day, the railways have become the backbone for thousands of stranded travellers. With more special trains and extra coaches now in service, passengers are finally beginning to find alternative routes to their destinations.
