Of the 80 trains that are to resume operations across the country from Saturday, one is from Dhanbad and going by the huge demand on Thursday, when bookings opened, railway authorities had to increase the number of ticket counters at the station.

The restored train is the Ganga Sutlej Express, now named Ganga Sutlej Covid-19 Special with number 03307, plying between Dhanbad and Ferozepur in Punjab.

Instead of its usual departure time of 9.20pm, the train will leave Dhanbad station on September 12 half an hour late, at 9.50pm. It will, however, reach Ferozepur at the usual time of 10.45 am two days later, ie, on September 14.

For its return journey, the train will leave Ferozepur on September 14 at 4.10pm and reach Dhanbad at 4.55am on September 16.

Chief reservation supervisor of Dhanbad Sanjeev Kumar said, “Due to the rush, we have had to increase the number of counters. Instead of three counters we opened four counters on Thursday. In the first half, we registered a sale of Rs 2.35 lakh, more than three times the usual day sales.”

People wait for their turn to buy tickets at Dhanbad railway station on Thursday. Gautam Dey

There is no general category ticket in the train. Instead, second class seating tickets are being sold at Rs 15 extra.

“Apart from September 12 bookings, we also registering bookings for journeys on September 13,14,15 also in all categories of AC, sleeper and second class seating,” said Kumar.

Preparations are on at the coach depot for relaunching train services. Ranjit Dutta, who is in-charge of the yard in Dhanbad, said, “We have already prepared three rakes, ie, cleaning, watering and undergear work has been completed. We started work from August 28 itself.”

Besides full sanitisation of all coaches, Data said rail personnel would also be deputed on the train to carry out regular cleaning and sanitisation at various stations.