Train reaches destination without a single passenger

Vivek Express rolls into Kanniyakumari after 81 hours of travel through 7 States

26/03/2020, S. VIJAY KUMAR ,CHENNAI

Vivek Express entering an empty Kanyakumari railway station, after completing four days of journey, on Wednesday.

It started on the night of March 22, barely hours before the ‘Janata Curfew’ called by Prime Minister Narendra Modi came into force and continued its journey for the next four days, traversing seven States across the country to reach its destination in the southern tip of India.

Though the train had about 50% occupancy during most of its journey, it reached its last station Kanniyakumari without any passenger. About 250 passengers, including women and children, were deboarded at Palghat and quarantined at Government Victoria College there. However, when contacted, a Southern Railway spokesperson said some passengers were allowed to travel beyond Palghat. As a nationwide lockdown also dawned on Kanniyakumari, train No. 15906 Vivek Express rolled in empty. The train, the longest travelling express in the country, was the last in the railway network to complete its journey on Wednesday, as the Ministry of Railways extended the cancellation of all passenger services till the midnight of April 14, 2020, in the wake of COVID-19. The weekly train started at 11.05 pm at Dibrugarh in Assam on March 21 and took 81 hours and 36 minutes to cover a distance of 4,205 km to reach Kanniyakumari four days later. Despite the threat of COVID-19, people boarded the train at the last minute to reach home, sources said. “The Kerala government is taking care of screening, food and other logistics for them. Most of the passengers belong to Tamil Nadu…we are not sure how long they will be quarantined there,” an official told The Hindu.