Cyclone Fani: Railways cancels 81 trains, diverts 2

Indian Railways on Wednesday cancelled 81 trains and diverted two more in view of cyclone "Fani", which is likely to affect 19 districts of Odisha, Andhra Pradesh and West Bengal.

The railways have also issued directions to the Divisional Railway Managers of all zones that frequent announcements are to be made at important stations to inform passengers about the cancellations, short termination and diversion of coaches in both directions of the Bhadrak (Odisha)-Visakhapatnam section.

The passengers would get full refunds for the cancelled or diverted trains if the tickets are produced for cancellation within three days of the scheduled date of journey, national transporter said.

Some of the trains cancelled include Yeshwantput-Muzaffarpur, Howrah-Chennai Central Coromandal Express, Patna-Eranakulam Express, New Delhi-Bhubaneswar Rajdhani Express, Howrah-Hyderabad East Coast Express and Bhubaneswar-Rameswaram Express.

Dry Food items, Janata Khana and water bottles in sufficient quantity are to be made available at catering stalls of all major stations. Due to dislocation of train services, the situation may warrant transport of passengers. "Local transporters are to be contracted for hiring of road vehicles for meeting exigencies as and when necessary," the instructions to DRMs stated.

"Emergency control is to operated round the clock with helpline number for guiding passengers. No staff are to be allowed to go on leave for next three days," it said.