Exemplary punishment is really required to stop IR being operated as departmental/personal fiefdom. It really needs a lot of courage/over confidence to play with a prestigious train like Rajdhani.
A 2000 km electrified trunk line shall cost about 50,000 Crore Rs, and less than 24 hrs (some hours has to be kept for maintenance) by way of timeslot for running trains is the the vital thing which IR get to recover the cost and earn profits. So every minute cost is valuable. IR realise it very well. Slowing down of a train slows down all the trains following it.
At...
more... Durg RS, most of the through trains are taken on platform no. 2&3 instead of main platform (no.1), much to the inconvenience of large number of passengers who have to cross foot over-bridge along with luggage. The reason given by officials, is trains lose 1 or 2 minutes in process of coming to PF no.1, as PF nos. 2/3 are directly falling on main line, whereas for coming to PF no 1, trains have to change tracks which take an extra minute. Changing of track from main line to loop line is nothing unusual for a junction station like Durg, but still IR avoid PF no1 may be for good reason of saving a 1/2 minute.
Giving a 2-3 minute unscheduled stop and diversion of train to slower (loop line leading to platform) shall cause delay of around 6-10 minutes as compared to through running at full speed. If train make unscheduled stop and change its regular (faster) route along stations for a VIP or kin of IR official, then it is insult to more than million citizens of Durg, thousands of whom are daily put to inconvenience just to save a minute or two of many trains passing through.