Ranchi: There was a lone woman passenger on the New Delhi-Ranchi Rajdhani Express that reached Ranchi early on Friday. The train remained stranded at Daltonganj Station for several hours on Thursday, due to the ongoing agitation of Tana Bhagats at Tori Junction, reported The New Indian Express (TNIE).
Railway officials ferried the remaining 930 passengers to Ranchi by bus but could not convince the woman, Ananya to do so.
She was adamant saying that she would not travel by bus as she had paid money for the train journey. Not left with any choice, the rail authorities had to divert the train via Gomoh and Bokaro, covering a distance of 535 kilometres, which is 225 kilometres more than its normal route.
“I was pressurised to travel by bus or taxi, but I was not ready for it as I had already paid for the train journey. Finally, when I informed Indian Railways through Twitter, they sent me to Ranchi by train,” Ananya, a law student was quoted as saying by TNIE.
The daughter of a retired official of the Heavy Engineering Corporation (HEC), she is currently pursuing an LLB degree at Banaras Hindu University (BHU).
The train departed from Daltonganj in the evening on the diverted route and reached Ranchi at 1:45 am on Friday morning, late by more than 15 hours.
More than 250 Tana Bhagats are agitating at Tori Junction performing puja, singing bhajans and cooking food on the railway tracks, affecting the movement of several goods trains as well as the New Delhi-Ranchi Rajdhani Express, reported TNIE.