Train service in South-Eastern section goes out of gear due to Tribal groups' 'indefinite' blockade

According to reports, over a set of demands, people from tribal organization, Bharat Jakat Majhi Pargana Mahal, have been blocking railway tracks, national highways and state roads at several locations in Bankura, Purulia, Jhargram, East and West Medinipur, Birbhum, East Burdwan and South Dinajpur districts of West Bengal for more than 16 hours.

Senior railway officials said that several express, passenger, EMU (suburban) and MEMU local trains had been cancelled or rescheduled or short terminated in South Easter Railway's Howrah-Santragachi-Kharagpur division.

"Train services of South Eastern Railway (SER)'s Kharagpur- Tatatanagar, Kharapgur- Bhadrak, Kharagpur-Howrah and Kharagpur-Adra sections have been affected since Monday morning due to Rail Roko (railway blockade) called by the supporters of a Tribal Organization on issues not related to railways and as a result, several trains have been cancelled," a SER official told IBNS.

"Besides rescheduling and short-terminating several trains, we had to cancel multiple long distance trains," the official added.

A railway official said that senior officers from SER and state government are currently trying to convince the strikers to call off the 'indefinite' blockade.

Meanwhile, SER officials said that the Railway Recruitment Board (RRB) will arrange another day for those candidates who could not appear in railway's recruitment exam, which is scheduled to be held in Bhubaneswar on Tuesday, due to the hour-long railroad blockade.

"Railway Recruitment Board (RRB) officials have asserted that they will arrange another day after October 26 for those aspirants who can not appear in railway's Group D recruitment exam on Tuesday in Bhubaneswar due to the rail blockade," CPRO of SER, Sanjoy Ghosh, told IBNS.

"Our senior officials are there at the blockade sites and they are coordinating with the state government in convincing the protesters that they withdraw their blockade," Sanjoy Ghosh said.

"Our efforts are on to lift the blockade and to resume normal train service in those sections as passengers have been suffering a lot since morning due to the blockade," Ghosh added.  

(Reporting by Deepayan Sinha)

List of trains cancelled due to tribal group's indefinite railroad blockade:

• 12885/12886 Shalimar-Bhojudih-Shalimar Aranyak Express
• 22821 Jhargram-Purulia Express
• 12866 Purulia-Howrah Lalmati Express
• 22862 Adra-Shalimar Rajyarani Express
• 58025 Kharagpur-Hatia Passenger
• 58021 Kharagpur-Tatanagar Passenger
• 08051 Kharagpur-Jhargram Passenger special
• 68001 Santragachi-Jhargram MEMU Passenger
• 58007 Kharagpur-Bhadrak Passenger
• 12277 Howrah-Puri Shatabdi Express
• 12073 Howrah-Bhubaneswar Janshatabdi Express
• 22841 Santragachi-Chennai Central Antyodaya Express
• 18409 Howrah-Puri Sri Jaganath Express
• 18007 Shalimar-Bhanjpur Express
• 18008 Bhanjpur-Shalimar Express
• 18645 Howrah-Hyderabad East Coast Express
• 12262 Howrah-Mumbai CSMT Duranto Express
• 22863 Howrah-Yesvantpur AC Express
• 18030 Shalimar- LTT Express
• 06009 Santragachi-Puducherry special
• 12860 Howrah-Mumbai CSMT Gitanjai Express
• 12841 Howrah-Chennai Coromandal Express
• 12665 Howrah-Kanniyakumari Express
• 12810 Howrah-Mumbai Mail
• 12863 Howrah-Yesvantpur Express
• 18005 Howrah-Jagdalpur Express
• 12887 Howrah-Puri Express
• 12130 Howrah-Pune Azad Hind Express
• 12837 Howrah-Puri Express
• 12102 Howrah-LTT Jnaneswari Express
• 18047 Howrah-Vasco Amravathi Express
• 12839 Howrah-Chennai Mail
• 12834 Howrah-Ahmedabad Express
• 18615/18616 Howrah-Hatia-Howrah Kriya Yoga Express
• 22101 Sealdah-Puri Duranto Express