Dhrashti Chaudhary (22) couldn’t reach Hyderabad for her MBA entrance exam on Sunday morning. On Saturday afternoon she had no other option but to return home from railway station after finding that her Chandigarh-Delhi Shatabdi train has been cancelled. But she is just one case among many cases. The Jat agitation has left lakhs of passengers stranded at Delhi railway station as train services have been suspended. More than 1,050 trains have been affected out of which 800 remained cancelled. Railways officials say that over 300 freight trains were hit and the disruption has caused railways a loss of over Rs200 crore in the last two days.
The Jat agitation for quota has hit rail services hard in the northern States, affecting around 1,000 trains with 800 trains cancelled and 105 diverted besides damage to rail property, causing a loss of Rs200 crore to the transporter. The important rail routes to the states of Punjab, Haryana, Rajasthan, Chandigarh, and Jammu & Kashmir have been badly affected due to the Jat agitation, said a senior Railway Ministry official. The Delhi-Rohtak-Bhatinda and Delhi-Rewari-Jaipur, Delhi-Panipat-Ambala routes are worst affected. Officials say the agitating public has also led to large scale damage of railway properties and installations.
“I had my entrance scheduled for today. Since I am a resident of Chandigarh, I had to board Chandigarh-Delhi Shatabdi and then take a flight from Delhi to Hyderabad. When I reached the station, I got to know that my train has been cancelled. So we decided to come to Delhi by car but were forced to go back by the Army as the situation didn’t allow us to cross the border. There was no way we could do anything, I was stranded,” said Dhrashti.
Raja Ram (53) who was returning from a wedding in Banda (Uttar Pradesh) has been stuck at New Delhi Railway Station since Saturday night with his family. “We had to go to Hisar. But there are no trains, we are simply stuck. With me, there is my wife, 35-year-son son, my daughter-in-law and grandson. The food that we have with us is over and here everything is high priced. We cannot afford to buy all the meals,” said Ram.
Similarly, two brothers Premchand and Santram, who have to go to Punjab, are waiting for the next train announcement. “We have to go to Chandigarh. We have been waiting since Sunday morning. There are no buses, no trains. We can’t afford air travel. Don’t know how we will go,” said Premchand.
Ten stations were burnt, two railway engines and two track machines damaged by the agitating public. Tracks were also uprooted at several locations. The loss to railways due to large scale cancellation and damage is more than Rs200 crore now, said an official.
Premier trains like Jammu Rajdhani, Amritsar Shatabdi, Kalka and Chandigarh Shatabdi trains remained cancelled due to the ongoing stir. Uttar Sampark Kranti, Punjab Mail, Jaipur Double-Decker, Jat Mail and Himalayan Queen are among other popular trains that remained affected due to the agitation.