A call to disrupt rail traffic by a Jharkhand-based party, coupled with dense fog disrupted train movement in various parts of West Bengal today, causing inconvenience to thousands of passengers.
A number of express and passenger trains were either cancelled or diverted, owing to the agitation by supporters of Jharkhand Dishom Party, which has a presence among tribals in various parts of West Bengal.
The party had called a strike opposing land acquisition in tribal areas and other issues, following which its supporters blocked railway tracks at Indrabil, Kantadih, Madhukunda and Maluka stations.
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In South Eastern Railway (SER), the rail roko affected train movement from 6.05 am with blockades at various stations in Adra and Chakradharpur divisions, SER spokesperson Sanjoy Ghosh said.
The blockades were lifted at 1.20 pm, he said, adding 18183 Tatanagar-Dhanbad Express, 58025 Kharagpur-Hatia passenger and seven MEMU passenger trains were cancelled.
Ghosh said two other trains -- 22861/22862 Shalimar-Adra Rajya Rani Express and 63595 Bokaro Steel City-Asansol Express were short terminated.
The 12801 Puri-New Delhi Purushottam Express would run on diverted route via Chandil-Muri-Bokaro Steel City instead of Chandil-Purulia-Bokaro Steel City, while the 22811 Bhubaneswar-New Delhi Rajdhani Express would run on diverted route via Kharagpur-Tatanagar-Chandil-Muri-Bokaro Steel City instead of Kharagpur-Adra-Gomoh, the spokesperson said.
Supporters of the party also blocked railway tracks from 6.00 am at Adina, Dalkhola, Araria and Buniyadpur stations in Katihar division of North East Frontier Railway, resulting in several mail and express trains being held up at different stations for several hours, railway sources said.
Among the trains held up in North Bengal stations were the 12343 Darjeeling Mail, 12377 Padatik Express, 12345 Saraighat Express, 12042 New Jalpaiguri-Howrah Shatabdi Express and 12346 Saraighat Express.
The agitators stopped train movement at Jhapandanga in Howrah-Barddhaman Chord line section of Eastern Railway from 6.30 am to 7.17 am, delaying movement of the Howrah-Ranchi Shatabdi Express and two EMU local trains by about 30 minutes, Eastern Railway spokesperson R N Mahapatra said.
Owing to dense fog in Bihar, Uttar Pradesh and parts of West Bengal, a number of trains to and from northern parts of the country were also delayed by an average of 10 hours, including the Howrah and Sealdah Rajdhani Express trains, he said.
"Due to delay in arrival of corresponding down trains, several trains have been rescheduled," Mahapatra said.
The 12311 up Howrah-Delhi Kalka Mail has been rescheduled and would leave Howrah at 5.00 am tomorrow, instead of 7.40 pm today.
The 13019 up Kathgodam Express will leave at 1.30 am tomorrow instead of 9.45 pm today, while the 13009 Howrah- Dehradun Express will leave Howrah at 2.00 am tomorrow, delaying its departure by over five and half hours.
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