Thursday, July 13 2006 12:07 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

New Delhi: A proposal to increase the passenger-carrying capacity of the recently-launched cross-border train service between Munnabao and Khokhrapar has failed to take off, thanks to Pakistan's inability to handle growing number of travellers.

In view of the growing popularity of Thar Express whichlinks Rajasthan with Sindh Province in Pakistan, a proposal was mooted to increase the number of coaches on the train from seven to 10 to enable more people to travel to and fro.

"However, unfortunately, the government of Pakistan has requested that due to infrastructure constraints, they are unable to handle the growing number of passengers at Zero Point station in Pakistan and we should run this train only with seven coaches," External Affairs Ministry spokesman Navtej Sarna told reporters here today.

"Naturally, this will limit the number of passengers that can be accommodated in this train to 400 per trip," he said, adding that therefore from July 21 onwards, the train will only have seven coaches.

It will not carry more than 400 passengers a week each way and the issuance of tickets will also be restricted to this number, Sarna said.

The train service, launched in February, was started with an average of 200 passengers per service and with increase in popularity, the number of travellers rose to an average of 700 passengers.