The steel city will be without a train to Calcutta from Saturday as the railways have decided to suspend operations of the Howrah-Barbil Jan Shatabdi Special Express for the time being because of poor occupancy.

"The occupancy in the train is not even 15 per cent. Therefore, the Railway Board was compelled to discontinue the Jan Shatabdi. It will resume operations as and when the situation improves," said Sanjay Ghosh, chief public relations officer of South Eastern Railway.

The Janshatabdi was the only train available for people travelling between Jamshedpur and Calcutta as of now. The two other signature trains for a quick trip to Calcutta were the Steel Superfast Express and Ispat Express. Both had been suspended earlier.

Two long-distance trains of Calcutta that used to stop briefly at Tatanagar, the Howrah-CSTM Mumbai Mail and Howrah-Ahmedabad Express, have not had a halt at the Jamshedpur station for two months now.

"Both the trains used to stop at Tatanagar initially when services resumed after the lockdown on June 1. But the stops were withdrawn following a request of the Jharkhand government owing to rising number of Covid-19 cases, " said H.K. Balmuchu, director of Tatanagar station.

These days, both trains run daily from Howrah at night. After Kharagpur, the next stop is Rourkela in Odisha.

With the Jan Shatabdi also suspended, residents of Jamshedpur have no train to Calcutta as of now.

The Howrah-Barbil Jan Shatabdi Express resumed operations from June 1 when lockdown restrictions were being lifted gradually. As the movement of people were restricted due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the occupancy was less than 15 per cent. This has prompted the railways to temporarily withdraw the train.

Ghosh said the train will run for the last time on September 11. Garden Reach, the Calcutta-based headquarters of South Eastern Railway, had earlier announced that the train would remain cancelled on September 12 due to a lockdown in West Bengal.

An official at South Eastern Railway's commercial wing at Garden Reach admitted that the decision to cancel the train was taken the railway zone was incurring huge losses. "We are keeping a tab on the situation. The train will resume operation as and when the flow of passenger increases," he said.

Chhotanagpur Passenger Association expressed its objections about the decision to discontinue the train. “Now, passengers are feeling handicapped. At least a train was available to go to Calcutta and return. People may need to go there, but now, that option is gone,” pointed out Arun Tiwari, general secretary of the association.