The Northeast Frontier Railway (NFR) has decided to extend the services of a number of special trains, including some trains that connect north Bengal and the northeast with Calcutta, by another month.

According to NFR sources, services of 11 trains were extended till December 31. Among these include four trains to Sealdah — the Sealdah-Agartala Special (four days a week), the Sealdah-Silchar Special (three days a week) and the Sealdah-New Alipurduar Special and Sealdah-New Jalpaiguri Superfast Special (the last two would run every day).

Some other special trains that will continue to run through north Bengal during the next one month are Dr Ambedkar Nagar-Kamakhya Weekly Special, Kamakhya-Anand Vihar Express Special, Guwahati-Secunderabad Express Weekly Special, New Delhi-Dibrugarh Superfast Special and New Jalpaiguri-Amritsar Karmabhoomi Express Weekly Special train.

“We are assessing the inflow of passengers and making necessary changes in train services. Another assessment would be done again after a fortnight or so to find out if these services need further extension,” said a source in NFR.

Sandipan Ghosh, general secretary, Eastern Himalaya Travel & Tour Operators’ Association, welcomed the extension of the trains, because earlier the railways had said the special trains would run only till November 30.

“We had been deeply concerned as all stakeholders are expecting a good turnout of tourists during winter holidays. It is good the railways made the decision to continue services of the special trains for another month. We hope in due course the services would be further extended as many visit the hills and the Dooars in January,” Ghosh said.

Like in other parts of the country, train services had come to a halt in north Bengal during the lockdown. As the lockdown relaxed in phases, only one train resumed between Calcutta and the region, which led to protests from commuters demanding more trains.

The railways did introduce more special trains ahead of Durga Puja, but clearly stated these additional special trains would run till November 30.

This again led to an outcry here. Also, those associated with travel trade expressed worry that tourists who want to visit north Bengal during winter would only have one train available from Calcutta.