Anti-Agnipath protests turn ugly: Trains scrapped, 20,000 held up: Lists- ER 1cancelled 5 long-distance trains while the NFR called off at least 12 trains

Eastern Railway cancelled around 15 long-distance trains while the Northeast Frontier Railway (NFR) called off at least 12 trains

Protesters perform exercise at a level crossing near Barrackpore railway station in North 24-Parganas on Saturday.: Ankit Mukherjee

TT  Bureau   |   Siliguri   |    19.06.22  : Over 25 trains that pass through Bengal,  including the Rajdhani, were cancelled on Saturday because of the protests on tracks against the Agnipath recruitment scheme and the Bihar bandh, holding up more than 20,000 passengers at various stations.

Eastern Railway cancelled around 15 long-distance trains while the Northeast Frontier Railway (NFR) called off at least 12 trains. These trains connect various destinations in north, central and west India and pass through Bengal. The Rajdhanis that travel between Delhi and the Northeast were among those cancelled.

“The trains have been cancelled because of the agitation by youths at various stations of north and central India and the strike in Bihar. A number of trains have been torched in the past two days. Keeping in mind the safety of passengers as well as railway properties, the decision was taken to cancel the trains,” an NFR official said.

Among some of the important trains that were cancelled were the Howrah-Kathgodam Bagh Express, Howrah-Jammu Tawi Himgiri Express, Malda Town-Delhi Farakka Express, Dibrugarh-Lalgarh Avadh Assam Express, New Jalpaiguri-New Delhi Express, Dibrugarh-Kanyakumari Vivek Express and the Delhi-Kamakhya Brahmaputra Mail.

At least 20,000 passengers who were supposed to take these trains have got stranded at stations such as Howrah, Sealdah, New Jalpaiguri, Guwahati and Burdwan. The passengers said they came to know about the cancellations only after reaching the stations. While some passengers protested and demanded that the trains be run with adequate security, others queued up at counters to cancel tickets and explore other travel options.

Mohammad Rahaman at Burdwan station said: “I reached the station to take the Jammu-Tawi Express but learnt that it had been cancelled. I work in a company that installs cellphone towers in Jammu. If train services do not return to normal soon, I’ll have to take a flight as I have to join work.”

In most stations across Bengal, from where these long-distance trains originate or have halts, the retiring rooms, platforms and foot overbridges were cramped with passengers.

At New Jalpaiguri, the largest junction in north Bengal, many tourists who had been to the Darjeeling hills squatted on the platforms or tried to book flight tickets or plan their return home on trains on other routes.

Ramesh Sharma, a Delhi resident who had been to Darjeeling with his family, said: “We have tickets for a Delhi-bound train but after reaching here we came to know that it has been cancelled. Some people are talking about flights from Bagdogra and I am trying to check out the fares and availability,” he said.

Courtesy & Source

KalimNews:

List of trains cancelled

12335 Malda Town - Lokmanya Tilak (T) Express

12273 Howrah - New Delhi Duronto Express

15483 Alipurduar Jn - Delhi Express (will be cancelled between Alipurduar Jn and Delhi)

15909 Dibrugarh - Lalgarh Express (will be cancelled between Dibrugarh and Lalgarh)

12505 Kamakhya - Anand Vihar Express (will be cancelled between Kamakhya and Anand Vihar)

13258 Anand Vihar T.- Danapur Jansadharan Express.

22406Anand Vihar T.- Bhagalpur Garibrath Express.

20802 New Delhi- Islampur Magaadh Express.

13484 Deli- Malda Town Farakka Express.

12802 New Delhi- Puri Purushottam Express.

15657 Delhi- Dibrugarh Brahmputra Mail.

14006 Anand Vihar T.- Sitamarhi Lichchhavi Express.

12562 New Delhi- Jaynagar S.S.Express.

02564 New Delhi- Saharsa Express.

12554 New Delhi- Saharsa Vaishali Express.

15622 Anand Vihar T.- Kamakhya Express.

12312 Kalka- Howrah Mail.

13010 Yognagri Rishikesh- Howrah Express.

12370 Dehradun- Howrah Express.

13152 Jammu Tawi- Kolkata Express.

15654 Jammutawi- Guwahati Express.

14224 Varanasi- Rajgir Express.

List of trains controlled

1)12303 Howrah - New Delhi Poorva Express

2)12353 Howrah - Lalkuan Express

3) 18622 Ranchi - Patna Patliputra Express

4)18182 Danapur - Tata Express

5) 22387 Howrah - Dhanbad Black Diamond Express

6) 13512 Asansol - Tata Express

7) 13032 Jaynagar - Howrah Express

8) 13409 Malda Town - Kiul Express

Moreover, Bhagalpur-Danapur Intercity Express (13401) and Jamalpur-Kiul DEMU Passenger Special (03487) have been short terminated at Dhanauri.

Railways Board spokesperson Amitabh Sharma said 116 train services have been affected in at 24 places in Bihar, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh and Haryana. He said the 37 trains have been cancelled.

In Telangana, the South Central Railway cancelled Multi-Modal Transport System (MMTS) services. Earlier in the day, a train was set on fire at Secunderabad Railway Station.