Railways to convert technical stoppages of 23 Duronto trains into commercial halts

Railways have decided to convert technical stoppages of 23 Duronto trains into commercial ones, thus enabling passengers to book tickets and board from such stops. "We have identified 23 out of 54 Duronto trains whose technical stoppages would be converted into commercial ones to increase patronage," railways officials said. The 23 Durontos include the Howrah-New Delhi Duronto which would have commercial stoppages at Dhanbad and Kanpur.

Mumbai Central-New Delhi AC Duronto would have stoppages at Vadodara, Ratlam and Kota. Yashwantpur-Delhi Sarai Rohilla AC Duronto would have stoppages at Guntakal and Secunderabad while Howrah-Yashwantpur Duronto would stop at Bhubaneswar, Vizianagaram, Vijayawada and Renigunta, officials said.

Likewise, Delhi Sarai Rohilla- Jammu Tawi Duronto would have stoppages at Ludhiana and Chennai-Hazrat Nizamuddin Duronto at Vijayawada, Balharshah, Nagpur and Jhansi. Bhubaneswar-Delhi Duronto express would halt at Mughalsarai and Kanpur and Ernakulum-Nizamuddin Duronto would have stoppages at Kota, Ratlam, Vadodara, Panvel, Ratnagiri, Madgaon, Mangalore Jn, Kozhikode.

A formal announcement of the stoppages and bookings at these halts would be made soon, officials added. At present, Duronto trains run from originating stations to the terminating stations without any halts in between.

However, for operational reasons, they are provided technical stoppages at major junctions, though bookings are not allowed in these stations.