New Delhi: With the railways beginning its passenger services on May 12 for 15 pairs of trains between Delhi and major cities of the country, over 9,000 people left the national capital on Wednesday on board nine trains.
According to data accessed by the media, of the nine trains from Delhi, eight which left for Howrah, Jammu, Thiruvananthapuram, Chennai, Dibrugarh, Mumbai, Ranchi and Ahmedabad were booked beyond their capacity.
Only one train, which ran to Patna, the capital of Bihar, ran at 87 per cent capacity, the data showed.
Official data also showed that till Wednesday, 2,08,965 passengers had booked tickets for these special trains for journeys over the next seven days.
Of the nine trains that left on their journeys on Wednesday, the Howrah to New Delhi train which can carry 1,126 people at a time had a booking for 1,377 passengers which is 122 per cent of the train's capacity. While the New Delhi - Thiruvananthapuram special train was booked at 133 per cent of its capacity, the New Delhi-Chennai train ran on 150 per cent occupancy.
Similarly, the New Delhi - Jammu Tawi special ran at 109 per cent occupancy, while the New Delhi - Ranchi train ran at 115 per cent occupancy, the New Delhi - Mumbai Central train at 117 per cent, New Delhi - Ahmedabad at 102 per cent and the New Delhi-Dibrugarh train ran with an occupancy of 133 per cent.
"Overbooking does not mean that passengers are standing in the aisles, it just means that there is a movement of people while the train is on the run. People are boarding and deboarding at halt stations and there have been multiple bookings," said an official.