I was born and brought up in BOKARO Steel City. And, BOKARO is a major Industrial town with lots of freight movement. BOKARO Steel city station is located very near to the steel plant and it's is located a bit far from the steel township. It had very limited number of long distance trains and people generally had to go to Dhanbad , if they needed to travel to various far places in the country. In those days PURUSHOTTAM express was not only a boon for the people of BOKARO, but was also considered a very prestigious train halting at the small town. The train being a 24 coacher could not even fit into any of the three platforms of BOKARO Steel city. The train had very halts and it was famous for its punctuality. I vaguely remember it used to halt at Purulia only between Tatanagar and BOKARO, while the...
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run from Kharagpur to Tatanagar used to be a non-stop run. The priority that the train used to get was just astonishing. I remember ,in my early railfanning days this was the one which used to get hauled by Ghaziabad WAP-4 and believe you me it raised my interest in the Indian Railways and the WAP-4. Those days ,it used to get a diesel loco from Puri and the traction change used to take place at Kharagpur.
But, it really pains me to see the number of halts that this train has got added up in its schedule. Ghatsila, chandil , Paharpur and the list goes on....
This is long distance train and a super fast one which was used by the local politicians to fulfill their mean ambitions. The result of this reckless adding of halts has resulted in very poor maintenance of the train and ultimately it's the long distance passengers who have to pay the price. The long distance travellers have to now adjust with the daily passengers who board the train at small stations and they travel without bookings in the reserved coaches of the train.
It's such a shame that such a legendary train has been handled so badly by the authorities. I know for them , it's just like any other train . But ,for a boy from a small town it symbolised prestige and eminence. I sometimes wish that the train gets back to retain its stature and continues to fly by the small towns .