Rajdhani Express Travels To Ranchi With Lone Woman Passenger Who Refused Travel By Bus

The New Delhi-Ranchi Rajdhani Express, which was stranded at Daltonganj Station for hours on September 3, amid the ongoing agitation of Tana Bhagats at Tori Junction, reached Ranchi early on September 4 with only one passenger.

The 930 passengers who were supposed to be on board the Rajdhani Express were ferried from Daltonganj Station to Ranchi in a bus, however, railway officials could not convince one woman, Ananya, to take the bus arranged by the district administration.

Ananya was not ready to go to Ranchi by bus as she had paid money for the travelling by train. The rail authorities were then forced to divert the train via Gomoh and Bokaro, covering a distance of 535 kilometres, which is more than its usual route.

"I was pressurized to travel by bus or taxi, but I was not ready for it as I had already paid for the train journey. Finally, when I informed Indian Railways through Twitter, they sent me to Ranchi by train," Ananya said.

Railway authorities said that the buses were arranged by the district administration due to uncertainty over the ongoing agitation of Tana Bhagats at Tori junction.

More than 250 Tana Bhagats are agitating at Tori Junction performing puja, singing bhajans and cooking food on the railway tracks, disrupting movement of goods trains and the New Delhi-Ranchi Rajdhani Express.

"Since, it is the responsibility of Indian Railways that every passenger on board reaches his or her destination on time, arrangement of buses was done to ferry them to Ranchi. But due to some reasons, the girl was reluctant to board a bus or taxi arranged by the district administration," Senior Divisional Commercial Manager Avnish said.

The train left from Daltonganj on the diverted route and reached Ranchi at 1:45 am on Friday morning, late by over 15 hours.

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