Amritsar airfares rose sharply after rail services to and from New Delhi and Hazrat Nizamuddin were suspended for 10 hours, with some tickets reaching Rs 8,000 against the usual one-way fare of about Rs 4,000. The disruption also affected passengers travelling from Punjab to Delhi for onward international connections.
The railway restrictions were scheduled to affect services on October 10, with 29 trains cancelled. The Kalka Shatabdi, Jan Shatabdi and Amritsar Shatabdi were among the cancelled trains. These services are routinely heavily occupied, making the cancellations particularly significant for passengers who had planned travel around fixed train schedules.
Several trains originating from Amritsar, Sri Mata Vaishno Devi Katra, Jammu Tawi, Pathankot, Hoshiarpur, Daulatpur Chowk and Una were also listed for cancellation. The suspension covered services connected to New Delhi and Hazrat Nizamuddin railway stations, forcing passengers to consider flights and road travel for urgent journeys.
Travel agents said the steepest pressure was seen among passengers with onward international flights. “Those with onward travel plans, especially international flights, have limited choices and are having to buy expensive tickets to avoid further cancellations or missing their connections,” said Dalip, a travel agent in Amritsar.
Another travel agent, Ravi Sehgal, said fares for October 10 were changing rapidly as airlines released seats in limited batches of eight to 10. The reported fare movement reflected the narrow time window available to passengers whose rail journeys had been cancelled or suspended.
Airfares from Ludhiana’s Halwara Airport to Delhi also fluctuated significantly during Friday. The afternoon flight fare was listed at Rs 12,987 at 3.01 pm, fell to Rs 4,616 at 7.33 pm and stood at Rs 4,301 at 8.07 pm. Morning fares from Halwara reportedly saw less change.
The disruption exposed the limited room passengers have when a major rail connection is withdrawn at short notice. Those travelling for international departures faced the greatest constraint because missing a train could also mean missing a fixed flight connection. In contrast, there was no major change in flight and cab fares from Chandigarh to Delhi until Friday evening, according to the report.
The cancelled services and fare changes were reported ahead of the October 10 travel disruption. Passengers were advised, through the changing availability reported by travel agents, to account for limited seats and fluctuating prices while arranging alternative journeys.
