Jamshedpur : The cold and foggy weather in North India have affected train schedules especially those coming from New Delhi and Bihar. As many as four trains — New Delhi – Puri Neelanchal Express, New Delhi- Bhubaneshwar Sampark Kranti Express, Bhubaneshwar- New Delhi Rajdhani Express and Puri-New Delhi Purushottam Superfast Express is getting delayed at Tatanagar for the last two days.
According to railway officials, today too the Puri-bound Purushottam Superfast Express was scheduled to arrive at Tatanagar one-and-half-hours behind schedule. Instead of its scheduled arrival time of 8.30 pm, the train was scheduled to arrive at around 10 pm.
The train was running late due to fog. Neelanchal Express arrived at Tatanagar at around 9 am today. It left for its onward journey to Puri at 9.30 am .
The schedule of Sampark Kranti Express heading for Bhubaneshwar from New Delhi was also hit, as the train was delayed by about four hours. The train was supposed to arrive at Tatanagar at 4.45 am, but rolled in at 8.45 am today.
Rajdhani Express, which arrives at Tatanagar at 10.50am, was delayed by about one hour yesterday. The train reached Tatanagar at 11.55 am. Rajdhani Express does not ply today.
Station manager at Tatanagar Awtar Singh said trains were getting delayed due to excessive fog. Meanwhile, information from the computerised reservation centre at Tatanagar revealed that more than 200 people have booked tickets on several long-distance trains for January.
Concerned over the heavy rush of passengers, Chakradharpur division will request the Garden Reach headquarters of South Eastern Railway to provide additional coaches to accommodate the passengers.
About half-a-dozen other trains including Jallianwala Bagh Express, Tata-Patna South Bihar Express and the Tata-Chapra Express were also running late by over three hours.
Railway officials informed that a separate counter was opened at the Tatanagar railway station to facilitate refund of tickets. �A few passengers had cancelled their tickets when they came to know about the delay of Rajdhani and Purushottam Express,� said a railway official at the reservation counter.
But cancelling tickets is easier said than done. �Though there are counters at the station only one is open for cancellations. We are facing a lot of inconvenience due to this,� said Rakeshwar Rao, who was taking his wife for medical treatment.
Getting a train does not guarantee a smooth journey. Some passengers said they had to travel standing though they had confirmed tickets. A few even lodged complaints with the station superintendent.