Commuters bear brunt as farmers block railway tracks

Manmeet Singh Gill

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Amritsar, November 23

The protest by sugarcane farmers on rail tracks near the Chiheru railway station on the Amritsar-Sahnewal section on Thursday caused a great inconvenience to passengers as a large number of trains were either cancelled or short-terminated.

Railway officials said at least six trains between Amritsar-Chandigarh, Amritsar-Hisar, Ludhiana-Ambala cantonment and Amritsar-New Delhi have been cancelled for Thursday and Friday. Northern Railway has also short-terminated 18 trains as they cannot reach or depart from their original stations due to the blockade. The routes of a total of 31 trains have also been diverted.

The disruption of train services has caused a great inconvenience to passengers from the city as they could not board trains from the railway station here. “We had booked train tickets for Delhi in advance. But now we would have to reach Phagwara to board the train as it has been short terminated,” said Jignesh, a local resident. Similarly, passengers coming to the city on trains too were forced to travel by road as many trains were stopped at Phagwara and other stations.

Panicked by the situation, a large number of passengers who had plans to travel on trains are now going to their destinations by air. Yogesh Arora, a travel agent, said, “I have received a number of enquiries from people who had planned to travel next week.” He said people are concerned because they think that the protest would continue for days.

A large number of passengers who had no prior information of the blockade of the rail tracks by the protesting farmers turned up at the railway station here only to find that their trains, which were to depart from the city railway station, have been cancelled. Most passengers said the farmers have caused unnecessary trouble to them even as they have nothing to do with their demands.