The Hindu Business Line : Bandh hits train services in Bengal

The 24-hour all India industrial strike called by Centre of Indian Trade Unions (CITU) today, protesting against the economic policies of the UPA Government, has severely disrupted train services on both the Eastern Railway and South Eastern Railway systems of Bengal.

Metro Rail services, which began on a skeleton scale in the morning had to be called off following demonstrations and obstructions by bandh agitators.

Trains Detained

According to senior officials of ER, owing to obstructions at different stations and on the tracks at all four divisions of Sealdah, Howrah, Asansol and Malda by bandh supporters, train services have remained disrupted since 6 a.m. in the morning.

Many long distance trains have been detained at different points. It is learnt that these trains will be brought to their respective terminating stations (either Howrah or Sealdah) as soon as the obstructions are cleared and the tracks become free.

According to ER officials, New Delhi-bound Rajdhani trains, from both Howrah and Sealdah, have been rescheduled. Both the Howrah and Sealdah Rajdhani trains are expected to leave at 11 p.m. on Thursday night.

While the obstructions in the Sealdah Division were at 28 stations, in the Howrah Division it was on at 25 stations, at Asansol in the 8 stations of Panagarh, Runarayanpur, Ranigunj, Asansol, Kalipahari, Pandabeswar, Kumardhubi and Mugama, and at Malda, two stations.

Trains Cancelled

On the SER system, early morning agitations at busy stations like Santragachi, Ramrajtala, Balichak, Mecheda and Balasore completely threw train services out of gear. Consequently, Up and Down mail/express and Passenger trains, including EMU locals suffered detention at different stations.

SER has cancelled 9 trains, which include key services such as the Howrah-Ranchi-Howrah Shatabdi Express, Howrah-Hyderabad East Coast Express and Tata-Howrah-Steel Express. Apart from these, some 19 SER passenger trains have also been cancelled.

Some eight long distance trains, including ones like the Mumbai-Howrah Mail via Nagpur (at Santragachi), Dhauli Express (at Kharagpur), Howrah-Barbil Janshatabdi (at Kharagpur) and the Dn Ispat Express (at Tatanagar) have been short-terminated at different points.

More Stories on : Trade & Labour Unions | Railways | West Bengal

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