Bhubaneswar: Train services between Howrah and Puri were partially affected on Friday because of agitation by locals at Uluberia station in West Bengal over the enactment of the Citizenship (Amendment) Act.
East Coast Railway (ECoR) has rescheduled the departure timings of three trains from Puri station, even as a host of Odisha-bound trains remained stranded at different places between Howrah and Bhubaneswar.
The rescheduled trains:
Puri-Howrah Express
Puri-Howrah Shri Jagannath Express
Santragachhi Special
All these trains will leave 3.15 hours behind schedule.
Reports from South Eastern Railways suggests that most of the Odisha-bound trains are yet to leave Howrah station. This includes Shri Jagannath to Puri, Howrah-Mysuru Express and Santragachi-Chennai Express.
The Howrah-Chennai Coromandal Express remained stranded between Howrah and Kharagpur for over four hours along. It left Kharagpur station at 7.50 pm.
#CABProtest: Mob blocks railway tracks at #Uluberia station in #Howrah district of #WestBengal, pelts stones at passenger trains. Service completely disrupted in #SouthEasternRailway‘s Howrah-Kharagpur division. #Kolkata pic.twitter.com/GssPJySAja
— Deepayan Sinha (@sdeepayan) December 13, 2019
A South Eastern Railway spokesperson said rail traffic came to a halt from afternoon hours as protesters stormed the Uluberia railway station and allegedly pelted the speeding trains with stones. The situation turned ugly as some properties were reportedly set on fire. The railway staff had to flee.
The ongoing agitation in Assam and Northern Bengal also forced the Railways to cancel several long-distance trains, some of which pass through Odisha. The cancelled trains include Bengaluru Cantt – Agartala Humsafar Express commencing journey on Friday, Dibrugarh- Kanyakumari Express commencing journey on Saturday, and Kanyakumari-Dibrugarh Express, commencing journey on January 19.
