Balurghat, Aug. 28 -- Passengers of the Kolkata-bound Tebhaga Express faced severe inconvenience on Friday morning after a locomotive failure left the train stranded at Buniadpur station for nearly three hours.
The train, which departed from Balurghat at around 5.30 am, was scheduled to reach Buniadpur and leave the station after a brief halt. According to railway sources, its scheduled stoppage at Buniadpur was from 6.32 am to 6.37 am. However, the locomotive developed a mechanical fault, preventing the train from resuming its journey as scheduled.
The breakdown left hundreds of passengers waiting inside the train for several hours. The Tebhaga Express finally departed from Buniadpur at around 9.36 am, resulting in a delay of nearly three hours from its scheduled departure time.
Railway authorities arranged for a replacement locomotive from Malda. The relief engine was brought to Buniadpur and coupled with the train, following which the service resumed its journey towards Kolkata.
Passengers expressed anger over the prolonged delay and alleged that they received little information about the cause of the disruption. "We have been sitting inside the train for hours without knowing when the journey would resume. Many passengers were travelling for work and had important schedules to maintain," said Tapan Dey, a passenger.
Another passenger, Jiaul Khan said the railway authorities should have arranged a relief engine at the earliest to minimise the inconvenience.
Published by HT Digital Content Services with permission from Millennium Post.