Chandigarh/Amritsar, August 24
The long-awaited Duronto from Amritsar finally glided in to Chandigarh railway station on Wednesday morning and over one hundred ecstatic passengers from Amritsar disembarked, beaming from ear to ear.

There were few complaints, though the train arrived half an hour late and left the holy city very early at 5.25 am. The four and a half-hour long journey, against the earlier estimate of three hours, took almost as long as buses. The fare too was higher but the journey was far more comfortable and the passengers, secure in the knowledge that they could make the return journey at 7 pm the same evening, were in no mood to complain.

The inaugural run of the Duronto was marred by the failure of the Railways to start the sale of tickets earlier. The tickets were made available only on Tuesday evening at Amritsar, which possibly explains the poor sales. Some passengers darkly speculated about conspiracy theories, suggesting that the bus-mafia in Punjab would not allow the train to last long.

Earlier, the Union Minister of State for Railways KH Muniyappa flagged off the Duronto Express at Amritsar. But he ruled out the possibility of halts at Jalandhar and Ludhiana. The Duronto was conceptualised in the Railway Budget 2009-2010 to run non-stop, he explained. Supporters of Amritsar MP Navjot Singh Sidhu and workers of the Left parties sought to take the credit for introducing the train and a clash was averted only after the Left leaders were invited to the dias.

The Minister informed that the Northern Railway had already laid railway lines between Abohar and Fazilka (42.717 km) and Tarn Taran and Goindwal (21.5 km). He said the 17 km stretch between Ludhiana and Sahnewal would be commissioned soon while a 17.36 km railway line between Morinda and Khumano was near completion. Work on the railway line on the Morinda and Sahnewal sections was also under progress, he added.