Congress leader and MP from Kerala Shashi Tharoor blamed centre for putting too much focus on the Vande Bharat Express, while rail passengers are not able to get confirmed berths. In a series of tweets, Tharoor said that a confirmed railway berth should no longer be merely about luck but a normal facility, and also called the lopsided focus on Vande Bharat worrying. The senior Congress leader and former UN diplomat cited media reports which in turn quoted an RTI reply stating that more than 2.7 crore passengers could not travel by train in 2022-23 despite buying tickets because of being waitlisted.
“When are the long waitlists in the Indian Railways going to end? With 2.7 crore waitlisted passengers denied a confirmed seat, the year registered the largest number of tickets that remained waitlisted before they were automatically cancelled,” Tharoor wrote on Twitter. This has been the trend, with every year breaking the previous year’s record, the MP from Thiruvananthapuram said.
“This has been the trend, with every year breaking the previous record. Introduction of #VandeBharat is welcome but the lopsided focus on it is worrying. In our 75th year of Independence, a confirmed railway berth should no longer be merely about luck but a normal facility. The matter must urgently seize the Government’s focused attention,” he added.
In a recent reply to an RTI plea filed by Madhya Pradesh-based activist Chandra Shekhar Gaur, the Railway Board revealed that in 2022-2023, 1.76 crore Passenger Name Record (PNR) numbers were logged, against which 2.72 crore passengers who were scheduled to travel, were automatically cancelled due to being waitlisted.
In 2021-2022, a total of 1.06 crore PNR numbers were logged, against which 1.65 crore passengers were scheduled to travel, were automatically cancelled. After cancellation of PNRs, the ticket fare is refunded to the passengers. The inability to provide confirmed tickets to passengers has been a recurrent problem with the national transporter, reported PTI.
On the other hand, the Indian Railways has launched multiple Vande Bharat Express trains across India, including the newly inaugurated Guwahati-New Jalpaiguri Vande Bharat Express, which was flagged off by Prime Minister Narendra Modi as the Northeast’s first Vande Bharat train.