Puja Express nine hours late, 15 other trains cancelled

Our Correspondent

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Ludhiana, February 2

Passengers aboard the 12413 Ajmer-Jammu Tawi Puja Express underwent an ordeal as the train was running some nine hours behind the schedule.

The train chugged at the Platform No. 3 well past 12.30 noon against its scheduled arrival of 03.22am. Harried passengers in one voice cursed the inefficiency of the railways to manage rail traffic even as weather condition had improved tremendously.

While passengers travelling by train were sore at the delay and poor catering arrangements on board, many others, having booked their journey tickets for Jammu Tawi, were made to wait at the railway station since the wee hours.

Quite a few of them had decided to cancel their tickets and instead chose to travel in other alternate trains in unreserved accommodation.

According to railway officials many other mail, express and passengers trains were running late by several hours. The 14682 Jalandhar-New Delhi Intercity Express was late by 3.30 hours, 18101 Tatanagar-Jammu Tawi Express by 3.52 hours, 12587 Gorakhpur-Jammu Tawi Amarnath Superfast Express by 2.40 hours, 14611 Gorakhpur-Amritsar Jansadharan by 6.55 hours, 14153 Kanpur-Amritsar Weekly Express by 4.25 hours, 15707 Katihar-Amritsar Amrapali Express by 3.50 hours, 11057 CST Mumbai-Amritsar Express by 1.52 hours, 05209 Sharasa-Amritsar Special by 2.15 hours and 12459 New Delhi-Amritsar Intercity Express by 3 hours.

Meanwhile, railway authorities announced cancellation of 15 trains for the day due to operational reasons. These were the 12460 Amritsar-New Delhi Intercity Express, 14681 New Delhi-Jalandhar Intercity Express, 12241 Chandigarh-Amritsar Superfast, 13049 Howrah-Amritsar Express, 13308 Firozepur-Dhanbad Ganga Sutlej Express, 14011 Delhi-Hoshiarpur Express, 14038 Pathankot-Delhi Express, 14646 Jammu Tawi-Delhi Shalimar Express, 15209/10 Saharsa-Amritsar-Saharsa Jansadharan, 15211 Darbhanga-Amritsar Jannayak, 18110 Jammu Tawi-Rourkela Muri Express, 18238 Amritsar-Bilaspur Chhattisgarh Express, 19224 Amritsar-Ajmer Express and 22462 Katra-New Delhi Shri Shakti Express.