At least 10 trains were cancelled and 30 diverted or short terminated as rail traffic got disrupted on the Mokamah-Kiul section of the East Central Railway (ECR) zone due to an agitation at the Barhaiya railway station, officials said.
According to District Magistrate of Lakhisarai Sanjay Kumar, a large number of people squatted on the tracks at the station, about 120 km from Patna, to press for their demand that a number of express trains which had no stoppage at Barhaiya be made to have scheduled halts there for the convenience of local commuters.
Attempts by the DM and Railway DSP Imran Parvez to persuade the agitators to call off their agitation yielded no result, and as night descended, they began preparing meals on the tracks in a clear indication of their reluctance to back off.
According to the ECR headquarters at Hajipur, the trains which have been cancelled include four express ones, connecting the State with Kolkata, Sealdah and Jasidih.
Twenty-nine long-distance trains were plied through alternate routes, prominent among these being the Howrah-Delhi Express, Asansol-Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus Express, Amritsar-Howrah Express and Kamakhya-Delhi Express, said an ECR release.
