01-06-2021 The Asian Independent

8 01-06-2021 to 15-06-2021 NEWS
www.theasianindependent.co.uk
Punjab Mail, India's oldest train
that served Britishers, turns 110
Mumbai : The oldest running longdistance
train of the Indian Railways,
Punjab Mail, connecting Mumbai-
Firozpur - originally linking Bombay
with Peshawar (now in Pakistan) -
turns 110 on Tuesday, Central Railway
officials said here on Monday.
The Punjab Limited as she was
called then, is a little over 16 years
older than its more glamorous counterpart
Frontier Mail, though its origins
are rather vague.
She steamed out of Bombay's
Ballard Pier Mole station - which was
the hub of the erstwhile Great Indian
Peninsular Railways (GIPR), that later
became the CR.
Based on a Cost Estimate paper of
1911 and a complaint by an irate passenger
in Oct. 2012 about "the later
arrival of the train by a few minutes at
Delhi" station, the CR concluded that
the Punjab Mail made her maiden run
on June 1, 1912.
To begin with, there were the P&O
steamers bringing in the mail, and
excited officers of the British Raj
along with their spouses, coming to
their first postings in colonial India
after a 13-day long sea voyage from
Southampton to Mumbai Port.
Since the British officials held a
combined ticket both for the sea voyage
to Bombay and then onward
inland journey by train to their place
of postings, after disembarking they
would simply board one of the trains
from here bound for Delhi, Calcutta or
Madras. The Punjab Limited used to
run on fixed mail days from Bombay
to Peshawar covering 2,496 kms in
around 47 hours along the Great
Indian Peninsular route, via Itarsi,
Agra, Delhi and Lahore.
At that time, it had only 3 passenger
cars with a total capacity of 96 travellers,
three for postal goods and mail,
and was the fastest running train in the
British India. The passenger coaches
were all corridor cars in first class, dual
berth compartments, and well appointed
with lavatories, bathrooms, a restaurant
car, a compartment for the luggage
and servants of the British officers.
Later, from 1914, the Punjab Limited
started originating and terminating at
the Bombay VT Station, now
Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus
Mumbai and a UNESCO World
Heritage site. Today, the journey time
of Punjab Mail, hauled by electric
engines, has come down significantly,
covering the 1,930 kms between
Mumbai CSMT-Firozpur Cantt in 34
hrs 15 mins. Compared to the original 6
cars of the Punjab Limited, Punjab Mail
now has 9 air-conditioned coaches, 6
sleeper coaches, 5 general second class
coaches, a pantry and a generator van.
By mid-1930s, it also started catering
to the Indians on the move in Third
class cars, it got the first airconditioned
coach in 1945 , from May 1976,
it was hauled by diesel engines, and by
1980s with electric engines as a large
part of the trunk routes on the IR network
got electrified.
From December 2020, the Punjab
Mail started its journey with the
German-designed Alstom LHB
GmbH's Linke Hofmann Busch
(LHB) coaches which give more safety
and a pleasant travel experience to
the passengers.
Travel industry disappointed with GST Council
failure to rationalise taxes for the sector
New Delhi : The travel Industry, one
of worst affected sectors during the pandemic,
is disappointed as the government
has so far not come up with a specific
economic relief package for it.
IATO, one of the apex body tour operators,
has expressed deep disappointed
over its request for rationalising GST
and cascading impact it causes on the
tourism industry not even being discussed
in the GST Council meeting held
last week.
Though there is no substitute for
resumption of tourism activity which
seems far off given the second wave of
the pandemic, the apex tourism national
body has now pinned its hopes that the
government and GST council would
sympathise and do its bit and provide
succour by lowering the stiff GST which
is imposed on the tourism industry.
According to Rajiv Mehra, President
IATO, "Tourism, more particularly the
inbound one, is the worst affected with
zero inbound tourism business in the last
14 months and further we see no hope of
inbound tourism to start soon. In a scenario
like this we were hopeful that our
request would be favourably considered
in the GST council meeting, but what
was disappointing was that it was not
even discussed."
It is more important to reduce taxes
on the tourism industry as Indian tourism
stakeholders are going to face very tough
competition from our neighbouring
countries as they will be coming out with
lucrative offers to attract international
tourists to their countries, IATO said.
Until and unless we reduce taxes on
the tourism products, we will not be able
to compete with South Asian and other
neighbouring countries as tax on tourism
in these countries is very low compared
to our country, Mehra said.
However, IATO is still hopeful that
some relief will be favourably considered
in the second stimulus package to
be announced by the Ministry of Finance
considering the crisis this industry is facing.