26 new trains announced

Ashwini Phadnis

New Delhi, Nov 11: The Railway Minister, Mr Dinesh Trivedi, on Friday announced the start of 26 new trains, extension of eight existing trains and increase in frequency of five existing trains.

In a statement, the Railway Ministry said the new trains will be flagged off within the two-three days. The new trains to be introduced include the Pune-Secunderabad Shatabdi Express, which will be a daily service; the Dwaraka-Tuticorin Express (weekly); Mangalore-Palakkad Intercity Express (will run daily).

The Minister also announced the extension of Hubli-Bijapur passenger up to Solapur.

Besides, the Bangalore-Hubli Jan Shatabdi will run on a daily basis. Currently, the train operates six days a week.

Tatkal scheme

The advance reservation period of Tatkal scheme will be reduced from 2 days at present to one day excluding the date of journey from the train originating station. There shall be no refund on confirmed tatkal ticket subject to exceptions such as cancellation of trains and late running of trains. No duplicate ticket shall be issued. In future, when Aadhar is operational, the issue of Tatkal will be linked to Aadhar.