Zamania
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’Tram service’
Zamaniya, Ghazipur
A five-coach train has been plying in just one tehsil in Ghazipur district, Zamaniya, across the Ganges from Ghazipur city where Lord Cornwallis, twice Governor-General of Bengal, lies interred. It covers 18 km of track that runs alongside prominent markets, residential settlements and an important road, since before most residents can remember.
Train No.53643 (the Dildarnagar junction to Tarighat passenger) starts its first leg at 8.15am and ends its last service at 6.50pm, after shuttling six times within Zamaniya tehsil. Apart from stopping at four listed stops, the train also halts at half a dozen more places.
In the assembly constituency that elected SP leader Om Prakash Singh as MLA for six times, the popularity of the train has never dwindled, due largely to the poor road conditions.
Harish Tiwari, 18, an intermediate student, said, “It (train) is the lifeline for people in Zamaniya. The roads are so battered, we avoid using motor vehicles unless it's really needed,“ says Harish, who will vote for the first time on March 8.
Permitted to run at 40 kmph, the train doesn't even cover 20 km in an hour. At five laces, where roads leading to residential set ements intersect the tracks, the crossing is un anned. “I have spent 23 years in service with ailways. I can confidently say no other train perates in UP this way ,“ said deputy station aster at Dildarnagar junction, AK Mishra.
Zamaniya resident Mohd Karim Raza Khan, retired government school principal, says the rain is “equivalent to the Kolkata tram“. For housands of people, it used to be the only mode f transport to Ghazipur city , the tehsil, court nd other important establishments for up to hree decades after Independence.
