Bihar-bound train diverted to Odisha citing ‘congestion’

DARBHANGA: A Shramik Special train which started its journey from Maharashtra’s Mumbai for Madhubani in Madhubani on May 21 reached Odisha’ s Rourkela on Saturday without intimating the passengers about the change in the route. The Railways said it was forced to do so due to traffic congestion.

The journey that was supposed to take 36 hours, ended up lasting over 50 hours.

A report quoting senior railway ministry official in Delhi said, “We decided to run a few of Shramik trains on diverted routes. Some trains to Bihar were diverted via Rourkela to clear congestion.”

Many passengers took to social media to give vent to their angst.

Pramod Singh Yadav, a relative of passenger in the Shramik Special took to Twitter on Saturday and wrote, “The train had departed from Bandra for Darbhanga at 5.30 pm on May 21. Passengers were clueless about train route. It had reached Kustaur station after it had crossed Rourkela in Odisha earlier in the day. No food except biscuit and water was being served to passengers.”

PTI quoted Rourkela Station Manager Abhay Mishra as saying there was congestion on different routes as a large number of Shramik special trains are being run to ferry people stranded in different parts of the country.