The late-running of these trains meant that CR couldn't press the return leg into service because of the lack of rakes.
Thousands of passengers travelling to the eastern parts of India, especially Kolkata, had a torrid time on Wednesday evening as the railways was forced to cancel Howrah-bound trains because of large-scale traffic disruptions under the jurisdiction of South Eastern Railway.
According to Central Railway officials, an agitation by people in Rourkela in Odisha, which falls within the SER zone and is one of the main stations on the Mumbai-Nagpur-Tatanagar-Howrah route, for the past 24 hours had forced several trains departing from Howrah in West Bengal to be cancelled or diverted.
The late-running of these trains meant that CR couldn't press the return leg into service because of the lack of rakes. A CR statement said that the 12859 CST-Howrah Geetanjali express leaving Mumbai at 6am on Thursday would remain cancelled and so would the 18029 Kurla LTT-Howrah Shalimar Express which would have left Mumbai at 9:55pm on Thursday.
These cancellations are because the trains coming from Howrah are either late by over 19 hours or have been cancelled at source itself, said CR officials. On Wednesday evening the 12261 CST-Howrah Duronto, which departs from CST at 5:15pm, had to be cancelled because the Duronto Express had not even started from Howrah, said officials.
"We attached 7 coaches to the Howrah-bound trains that left from CST today but it is going to be problem for the next couple of days. The journey time between Mumbai and Howrah is 30 hours and any delay will obviously spill onto the next day. It is a chain reaction," said a senior CR official.
An official statement by South Eastern Railway said that train services on Howrah-Mumbai Trunk route was affected due to public agitation on a non-Railway issue at Bondamunda and Rourkela areas in Chakradharpur Division of S.E. Railway from 11.15 am on Tuesday to 4 p.m. Wednesday.
"As a result, a number of trains were controlled, diverted and short terminated. The issue was inclusion of certain area under jurisdiction of Rourkela Corporation" said a senior SER official.
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