CHANDIGARH: The ‘rail roko’ call given by farmers to protest the Lakhimpur Kheri killings left many passengers stranded at the Chandigarh railway station, with eight trains affected and the Delhi Shatabdi Express cancelled on Monday.
As the farmers sat on tracks at Dappar, Baltana and Mohali, two trains were stopped at Dappar and Ghaggar, while two at Ludhiana, said Ambala divisional railway manager Gurinder Mohan Singh. Kalka-Delhi Shatabdi was delayed by 1.30 hours, Pashchim Express by eight hours, Unchahar Express by four hours, Luchnow Junction Express by six hours, Ramnagar Express by 5.30 hours and Patliputra Express by 2.15 hours.
Passengers who were to take the 12noon Shatabdi from Chandigarh and had to travel to Mumbai from Delhi had no choice but to either board state transport buses or take cabs or a flight. The DRM said, “We were forced to cancel the Shatabdi Express which departs Chandigarh at12 noon as the route was blocked. There were 700 seats booked with a capacity of 720 passengers.” He said that no reports of damaging of tracks or any other railway property was reported from any of the protest sites Kalka Shatabdi Express scheduled arrival of 6.10 pm at Chandigarh arrived at 7.40 pm and with scheduled departure of 6.23 pm departed at 7.53 pm Most of the passengers wanting to board Pashchim Express for Mumbai decided to wait for the train to reach Chandigarh.
