Thar Express likely to restart by mid-February

The Thar Express is likely to restart its run by mid-February after the train's movement between India and Pakistan was disrupted since August due to rain waterlogging in Barmer district, a top railway official said today. The water level receded from 10 feet to just 45 cm and it would get cleared by the first week of February, General Manager of North-West zone, S B Bhattacharya, said. The divisional railway manager (DRM), Jodhpur has conducted push-trolley inspection on the rail roads recently and found that only one km of the section was now left inundated in the water up to 45 cm, he said, adding earlier about 4 km of track was muddled. As six months have passed since August 24 when Khokhrapar-Munabao rail link was disrupted following incessant rains in Barmer, a fresh inter-ministerial coordination meeting would be called in Delhi soon, he said, adding it would be a bilateral meeting of railway boards.

To local media reports that Pakistan was reluctant to restart the Thar Express, Bhattacharya said, "I have no such information...As per the bilateral MOU the train should run". He said the new date and schedule of the train would be decided by the inter-ministerial coordiantion committee. It was India's turn to run the train up to Khokrapar when its services were disrupted and "hopefully Indian Railways would maintain that schedule as per the MOU signed," Bhattacharya, who recently toured Jodhpur division, said. "Passengers' travel and their comfort is important and not the loss incurred due to non-operation of the train," he said when asked about the loss due to floods.

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