Ordeal on rails: Train to UP takes 4 days instead of 28 hrs

Rly Officials Say Congestion At Terminals Reason For The Delay

ManthanK.Mehta@timesgroup.com

Mumbai:  25.05.2020

The Shramik Special that left Lokmanya Tilak Terminus (LTT) here last Thursday for UP’s Basti reached its destination after almost four days on Sunday evening. Trains from Maharashtra and elsewhere in the country have been forced to take detours because of congestion on routes. TOI has reported a train that left Vasai for Gorakhpur on Thursday took a detour via Orissa and Asansol, taking passengers by surprise.

“We are in a hapless situation. It has become a long, arduous journey in hot weather. We hoped to reach in 28 hours, as per schedule, but it’s been four days now,” said Chembur resident Birendra Singh in the afternoon, when the train was yet to reach Basti, his native place. “This train was to go to Basti via Itarsi, Bhopal, Jhansi, Kanpur and Lucknow. But we have been taken via Agra, Gwalior, Haryana, Rajasthan and Ghaziabad. We crossed the UP border through Delhi and from there reached Lucknow.”

Railway Board chairman Vinod Kumar Yadav said on Saturday, “Nearly 80% Shramik Special trains are terminating in UP and Bihar. This has resulted in congestion on the direct routes, necessitating diversions.” Railway officials say congestion at terminals, too, is to blame for the delays and diversions.

Passengers of the LTTBasti train claimed they were given food and water only once after the train left LTT. “We are on our own. Fortunately, wherever our train halted between stations, villagers were kind enough to give us drinking water,” Singh told TOI on phone while the train was running.

When TOI spoke to another passenger, Naseem Ali, a while later, he said, “At times, the train is halting in forests for hours on end. What can you find in a forest? There’s very little food with us. We buy food from stalls if the train stops at a station (an unscheduled halt), but that is rare. Also, not many of us can afford to buy food for so many days.” Ali, who lives at Cheeta Camp, said at the time, “There are children on the train, who are feeling restless. We haven’t had a bath in this weather for days.”

NO SOCIAL DISTANCING: Guest workers wait to board buses to Sion railway station on Sunday

1,400 stuck as train to Kerala cancelled

Thane: The first Shramik Special train to Ernakulum from Thane was cancelled at the last minute on Sunday, inconveniencing 1,400 workers who wanted to return to their hometowns. Officials said the Kerala government had denied permission for the train and communicated to their Maharashtra counterparts after which the service was cancelled. CR’s chief public relations officer Shivaji Sutar said, “Due to lack of coordination between the states, the train got cancelled though we had kept the rake ready.” TNN