Industrial city cut off from Delhi as Railways cancels 50 trains

Kuldip Bhatia

Ludhiana, February 22

Ordeal of train passengers continued for the fourth day in succession as the region remained cut off from the national capital due to the agitation by Jats in Haryana. With no trains running to Delhi through strife-torn Haryana, thousands of city residents were stuck at distant places.

A a few trains, which were able to continue their run on a few unaffected routes, were running late by several hours. The Railways had to short-terminate some other trains.

As most of the long-route trains remain off the tracks, the railway authorities here were finding it difficult to cope with the rush of people seeking refund of their reserved tickets. For the past three days, additional counters were made operational for refund of fare, said railway officials.

Almost all trains running on the Amritsar/Jammu Tawi-Ludhiana-Delhi section, including three pairs of Shatabdi Express, one pair of New Delhi-Jammu Tawi Rajdhani Express, New Delhi-Amritsar-New Delhi Shan-e-Punjab and Intercity Express, New Delhi-Jalandhar-New Delhi Intercity Express, 12445/46 New Delhi-Katra-New Delhi Uttar Sampark Kranti Express, 14033/34 Delhi-Katra-Delhi Jammu Mail, 14645/46 Delhi-Jammu Tawi Shalimar Express and 22461/62 New Delhi-Katra-New Delhi Shri Shakti Express did not make their scheduled run.

Among other trains that remained cancelled were 11057 CST Mumbai-Amritsar Express, 11077/78 Pune-Jammu Tawi-Pune Jhelum Express, 12203 Saharsa-Amritsar Garib Rath, 12413/14 Ajmer-Jammu Tawi-Ajmer Puja Express, 12422 Amritsar-Nanded Superfast Express, 12715 Nanded-Amritsar Sachkhand Express, 12471 Bandra Terminus (Mumbai)-Katra Swaraj Express, 12925 Bandra (Mumbai)-Amritsar Pashchim Express, 12919/20 Indore-Jammu Tawi-Indore Malwa Express, 14037/38 Delhi-Pathankot-Delhi Express, 14673 Jaynagar-Amritsar Shaheed Express, 15707 Katihar-Amritsar Amrapali Express, 16318 Katra-Kanyakumari Himsagar Express, 16687 Mangalore-Katra Navyug Express, 18101/02 Tatanagar-Jammu Tawi-Tatanagar Muri Express, 18237 Bilaspur-Amritsar Chhattisgarh Express, 18507 Vishakhapatnam-Amritsar Hirakud Express, 114011/12 Delhi-Hoshiarpur-Delhi Express, 19613 Ajmer-Amritsar Express, 22401 Delhi-Udhampur Express and 22941 Indore-Jammu Tawi Suerpfast Express.

According to the railway officials, 02126 Amritsar-Nagpur Special, 14650 Amritsar-Jaynagar Saryu Yamuna Express and 15708 Amritsar-Katihar Amrapali Express were short-terminated at and originated from Delhi.

A few other trains that managed to run albeit way behind schedule were 12903 Mumbai-Amritsar Golden Temple Mail (6.45 hours), 12491 Barauni-Jammu Tawi Maur Dhwaj Express (7.08 hours), 18237 Bilaspur-Amritsar Chhattisgarh Express (5.37 hours), 12331 Howrah-Jammu Tawi Himgiri Express (3.25 hours) and 13005 Howrah-Amritsar Mail (7 hours).

Meanwhile, Divisional Railway Manager of Ferozepur Division Anuj Prakash, who was on a visit to railway station here on Monday, said the Railways was helpless as far as disruption in rail traffic due to the Jat agitation was concerned. 

“Maintenance of law and order is the responsibility of the respective state government and rail traffic will be back to normal once peace is restored in Haryana,” the Divisional Railway Manager added.