Hemanta Pradhan: The Indian Railways has cancelled 24 trains passing through Bhubaneswar and other major stations of Odisha between June 18 and June 23 as a precautionary measure in view of the agitation against Centre’s Agnipath scheme.
It also partially cancelled 13 trains and allowed eight trains to bypass Visakhapatnam.
East Coast Railway (ECoR) sources said no trains were dealt at Visakhapatnam station from 6am to 2pm on Saturday in view of agitation at this station in Andhra Pradesh. Besides, some trains coming to Odisha from different Agnipath protest affected parts have been cancelled too.
Passengers faced difficulties as many popular trains have been cancelled because of the protests. Many of them came Bhubaneswar station to find out a way to reach their destination after cancellation of several trains. But some of them found it difficult to travel in general tickets and came back.
“I had booked a ticket in Visakha Express for Secunderabad one week ago to join an operator job in an infrastructure company, but the train was cancelled on Saturday. I did not expect that this Agnipath protest will compel the railways to cancel the trains. I do not know how the employer will react after informing him about my train cancellation. As it was an urgent requirement for the company, he may take a local youth from there,” said Sanatan Bisoyi from Ganjam.
Official sources said 18 out of 30 trains are originating from different stations of ECoR. Some of these popular trains were- Bhubaneswar-Visakhapatnam-Bhubaneswar Inter City Express, Bhubaneswar-Secunderabad Visakha Express, Puri-Patna Express, Puri-Ajmer Express, Sambalpur-Jammu Tawi Express, Puri-Anand Vihar Nandankanan Express and Puri-New Delhi Purusottam Express.
Similarly, nine trains, which are coming from other zones to Odisha, and three other Odisha passing trains have been cancelled for the protest. Besides these 24 trains, the Railways has cancelled six more trains passing ECoR zone from Visakhapatnam to Kakinada and Guntur.
