Anyone planning a train trip between Rajkot, Jamnagar and Okha over the next ten days should check the train number before leaving for the station. Western Railway’s Rajkot division has taken a block on the Jamvanthli-Aliabada section for track-doubling work, and from 24 October to 4 November it has cancelled four trains outright, cut four more short at Rajkot and pushed back departures on a string of long-distance services, including the Okha-Sabarmati Vande Bharat. The list came from Sunil Kumar Meena, the division’s senior commercial manager, and was carried by Gujarat Samachar, Patrika and MorbiNews.
The eight trains that lose their Jamnagar leg
- Cancelled from 24 October to 4 November: 59551 Rajkot-Okha and 59552 Okha-Rajkot locals.
- Cancelled from 28 October to 4 November: 19251 Veraval-Okha and 19252 Okha-Veraval Express.
- 19209 Bhavnagar-Okha Express runs only up to Rajkot until 3 November; 19210 Okha-Bhavnagar starts from Rajkot from 25 October to 4 November.
- 22959 Vadodara-Jamnagar Intercity terminates at Rajkot from 28 October to 4 November; 22960 Jamnagar-Vadodara starts from Rajkot from 29 October to 5 November.
The Rajkot-Jamnagar-Okha stretch therefore loses its only daytime local and its Veraval link for the block period, and Jamnagar loses its direct intercity to Vadodara for a week.
Vande Bharat and the Katra trains run late
The 22926 Okha-Sabarmati Vande Bharat keeps running but leaves Okha at 6.15 pm instead of 4.45 pm on 30 October and at 6.55 pm on 2 November, and will be held for up to 45 minutes en route on 24, 25, 26, 28, 29 and 31 October and on 1 November. The 22969 Okha-Banaras Express departs at 4 pm instead of 2.05 pm on 29 October. The 12268 Hapa-Mumbai Central Duronto leaves 35 minutes late on 30 October and at 9.25 pm instead of 8.05 pm on 2 November, while the 22924 Jamnagar-Bandra Humsafar departs 25 minutes late on 30 October.
Inbound trains lose time too. The 12478 Katra-Jamnagar Express will be held 1 hour 40 minutes on 25 October and 4 hours 10 minutes on 1 November. The 12476 Katra-Hapa loses 1 hour 30 minutes on 26 October, the 15636 Guwahati-Okha 55 minutes the same day, and the 20967 Secunderabad-Porbandar 2 hours 40 minutes on 28 October. Passengers meeting these trains at Jamnagar or Hapa should check the running status on the day rather than the timetable.
Why the block falls in the week before Diwali
Jamvanthli and Aliabada sit between Rajkot and Hapa in Jamnagar district, on the single-line stretch that Western Railway has been doubling in pieces for several years. Earlier blocks for the same programme hit the Vagadiya-Daladi section in January 2023 and other Rajkot-division sections in August 2025, each time with the Vadodara-Jamnagar Intercity among the first casualties. Doubling needs the line shut while new track is tied into the old, and the railway tends to take such blocks before the festival peak rather than during it. This one ends on 4 November, the day our GSRTC Diwali report identified as the start of the Surat-to-Saurashtra rush, so the heaviest homecoming days should see the line back at full capacity, with the Vadodara-Jamnagar Intercity restored from 5 and 6 November.
Until then, state transport buses between Rajkot, Jamnagar and Dwarka are the fallback for passengers who held tickets on the cancelled locals. Note the two loose ends in the notice itself: the 19209 Bhavnagar-Okha cut runs only to 3 November and the 22960 Jamnagar-Vadodara cut to 5 November, so the headline date of 4 November is not the whole story for those two trains.
Sources: Gujarat Samachar, Patrika, MorbiNews, DeshGujarat (August 2025)
This report was written with AI assistance from the publicly reported sources linked here; each fact was cross-checked against at least two of them.