Following the exit of the Trinamul Congress nominee Mukul Roy as the minister for railways, the fate of Duronto Express appears to be uncertain.
Duronto Express was launched when TMC chief Mamata Banerjee was the minister for railways and much attention to it was paid by her successor Mr Roy in the Rail Bhavan.
In fact, officials are drawing parallel between Duronto Express and Garib Rath, which was lauched by RJD chief Lalu Prasad Yadav when he was the railway minister in the UPA-1. After the exit of Mr Yadav from the UPA and the rail ministry, Garib Rath lost the favour within the ministry.
Mr Yadav had lauched the Garib Rath with much publicity to give the poor people the luxury to travel in AC class at cheap rates.
Though some of the Garib Raths still run, passengers are full of complaint against services of the Garib Rath, which range from poor conditions of the coaches to lack of basic amenities.
But Mr Roy at the helms of the affairs in the Rail Bhavan paid lots of interest to Duronto Express and a number of trains where launched between major stations. Even the outside painting of the coaches of the Duronto Express trains has a mark of the choice of Ms Banerjee.
But with the Railways now being headed by Congress leader C.P. Joshi, officials state that the Duronto Express, which was being preferred over the Rajdhani trains by the passengers, may not enjoy the same patronage.
Even Mr Yadav’s Garib Rath was modeled on the Rajdhani trains but did not find favours with the TMC nominees at the Railways.