UP-bound migrants stranded after route change
Bengaluru train for Basti ends up in Ghaziabad; passengers go hungry for hours
BENGALURU:
There was more misery in store for 1,450 migrants aboard a Shramik Special train from Bengaluru to Basti in Uttar Pradesh, when a route change left them stranded in Ghaziabad, sans food and water for more than 20 hours.
The train departed from Chikkabanavara station at 6.45 pm on Thursday evening and was supposed to reach Basti, 2,456 km away. The migrants had paid a total of Rs 1,020 each (Rs 875 train fare and Rs 145 bus fare) before boarding the train.
The 45-hour journey was for Basti via Secunderabad, Nagpur, Itarsi, Jhansi, Kanpur and Lucknow, but with the route change the train reached Ghaziabad on Saturday morning.
Speaking to a news channel, one of the passengers said they had not been informed of the route change, and after Friday night from Nagpur station onwards they had not had anything to eat.
Bengaluru Divisional Railway Manager Ashok Kumar Verma said food and water had been arranged for the passengers. “They will be dropped at Basti railway station and till then will be taken care of by us,” he said.
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