Agartala – Kolkata special with modern AC LHB rake flagged off

DIMAPUR, MAY 17 (MExN): Northeast Frontier Railways (NFR) on Wednesday flagged off the Agartala-Kolkota-Agartala special (02502/02501) after converting it to a fully air conditioned Link Hofmann Busch (LHB) rake from the earlier conventional ICF model rake. 

A press release issued by the NFR chief public relations officer, Sabyasachi De informed that the train was flagged off from Agartala Railway Station by Kumari Pratima Bhoumik, Union Minister of State for Social Justice and Empowerment.  Prem Ranjan Kumar, Divisional Railway Manager, Lumding along with other senior officials of division were also present during the flagging off ceremony. 

Train no. 02502 (Agartala - Kolkata) special will depart from Agartala on every Wednesday for eight trips from May 17 – July 5 at 07:30 AM to reach Kolkata at 3 PM on the next day. In return direction, train no. 02501 (Kolkata – Agartala) special will depart from Kolkata on every Sunday for eight trips from May 21 to July 9 at 9:40 PM to reach Agartala at 3:15 PM on Tuesday. 

During it’s both ways journey, the special train will run via New Karimganj Jn., New Haflong, Guwahati, Goalpara Town, New Alipurduar, New Jalpaiguri Jn, Kishanganj, Malda Town, Azimganj Jn and Bandel Jn. The train will run with a revised composition consisting of 13 LHB coaches. It will have eleven state of the art AC-3 Economy Class coaches for the convenience of the passengers with two luggage cum generator coaches. 

The newly converted coaches will be of LHB rake with AC-3 Economy coaches which is safer and more comfortable as compared to the earlier ICF coaches. These coaches have improved and modular design of seats and berth. The AC-3 Economy has 2 side berths, making it a total of 8 berths per compartment, thereby leading to increased number of seats. Moreover, the fare structure for AC-3 Economy is roughly 8% lesser than 3 AC coaches. So, passengers can travel in much cheaper than 3 AC coaches.

Further, the NFR press release informed that the services of train no 02518/02517 (Guwahati – Kolkata – Guwahati) has been extended for another eight trips. Train no. 02518 (Guwahati - Kolkata) special will depart from Guwahati on every Saturday for eight trips from May 20 to July 8 at 9 PM to reach Kolkata at 3 PM on the next day. In return direction, train no. 02517 (Kolkata – Guwahati) special will depart from Kolkata on every Thursday for eight trips from May 18 to July 6 at 9:40 PM to reach Guwahati at 4:15 PM on the next day.

Details of stoppages and timings of these trains are available at IRCTC website and through NTES and are also being notified in various newspapers and social media platforms of NF Railway. Passengers are requested to verify the details before undertaking their journey, it stated.