A fire at one railway station has sent airfares through the roof! The recent fire accident Itarsi in Madhya Pradesh is to blame.

Air fares have gone up on Chennai-Delhi sector as Indian railways have cancelled trains to Delhi and other destinations after a fire accident at Itaris railway station has thrown traffic on one of the major railway junctions into disarray.

Fire in the route relay interlocking cabin affected the signaling system at Itarsi railway station. So, some 72 trains passing throughthe Bhopal division of West Central Railway has been cancelled for the next three days.

Most of the trains that travel from southern India to the north pass through this major railway junction.

The Southern Railway has cancelled Chennai-Delhi and Delhi-Chennai Grand Trunk express trains on Monday and Hazrat Nizamuddin-Madurai Sampark Kranti bi-weekly express on Tuesday as normal traffic has not been restored via Itarsi. The Lucknow-Chennai Central bi-weekly express scheduled to depart on Monday and a Jaipur-Chennai train scheduled to reach the city on Sunday have also been cancelled.

This has pushed up air fares by more than 50% as there is a temporary demand for air tickets from travellers who cannot cancel their trips. A one-way ticket is selling to Delhi from Chennai is up at Rs 8,500. Travellers from Lucknow and Jaipur will have to fly via Delhi to reach Chennai.

Travellers affected include students who had booked their travel in advance for admission to different colleges.

A senior railway official, “It will take a day or two for the services to come back to normal.”

A travel agent said “As there is low demand for seats in June and July, airlines sell most of their seats by floating special discounts and offers. The temporary surge in demand has come when most of the seats have been sold and discounts have been withdrawn. This has pushed up the prices.”

“When the offers were running, fares were in the range of Rs 4,000 to 5,000 for one way. Now, it has gone up above Rs 8,000. Fares are high now because seats are less,” he added.

[Written by  Newsnet intern Debratta Choudhary based on media sources]

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