CHENNAI: Hundreds of rail passengers experienced severe inconvenience as trains bound for Howrah, Santragachi, Bhubaneswar, Dhanbad and Danapur were delayed by 12 to 13 hours due to Cyclone Montha on Tuesday.
At Chennai Central, Perambur and Egmore railway stations, passengers remained stranded for several hours amid heavy rain.
In total, over 30 trains were delayed, while a few services were cancelled and others diverted. The affected trains included those originating from Bengaluru, Nagercoil, Chennai Egmore and Chennai Central, as well as services passing through the Perambur station.
With heavy rain warnings issued for the coastal regions of Andhra Pradesh, the South Central Railway, Eastern Railway and Southern Railway modified several train operations. Consequently, many trains running in the Visakhapatnam-Chennai section were diverted or halted at multiple locations across Odisha, Telangana and Andhra Pradesh.
Thousands of passengers returning from Dhanbad and Danapur after Deepavali and Chhath Puja were left stranded. Trains such as the Shalimar-Chennai Egmore Express, Howrah-Chennai Central-Coromandel Express, Santragachi-Chennai Central Express, Dhanbad-Alappuzha Express, SMVT Bengaluru-Danapur Express and Villupuram-Kharagpur Express were delayed by up to 13 hours. The Bengaluru-Nagercoil Express was cancelled on Wednesday.
This disruption also affected the departure of pairing trains from their respective destinations on October 28, with the railway authorities announcing further delays for return services on October 29.
Many workers who had taken leave to travel to Shalimar, Howrah and northeastern states were among the worst affected. At Perambur station, large groups of workers occupied the platforms since morning, while crowds at Central and Egmore stations were comparatively smaller as several passengers cancelled their trips and returned home.
S Raj Mandal, a native of West Bengal, said, “I came to Central station on Monday evening to board a train to Shalimar. Initially, it was announced as a two-hour delay, but later it extended to 13 hours. I’m not even sure if the trains will operate in the coming days. I wanted to reach my hometown for a family function.”
