Chennai: Continuous rainfall has kept people in Tamil Nadu’s capital awake due to concerns over the rising water levels and threat of floods. While the residents are living in fear, others heading into Chennai or out of it are facing a set of their own problems. The Indian Railways have cancelled several trains as Chennai Railway station remains shut due to water logging.
CANCELLATION OF TRAIN SERVICES:
The South Central Railway (SCR) has cancelled/ diverted/partially cancelled and rescheduled several trains due to heavy rains and water flowing above danger level at railway bridges in Chennai/Gudur section.
The trains which have been cancelled on Thursday include Chennai Central-CST Mumbai Express, Chennai Egmore-Dadar Express, Chennai Central-SVD Katra Express, Chennai Central-Vijayawada Jan Shatabdi Express, Chennai Central-Santragachi Express, Chennai Central Howrah Coramandal Express, Chennai Central Ahmedabad Navjeevan Express and Chennai Central-Tirupati Express.
Besides, Guwahati-Chennai Central scheduled to depart from Guwahati tomorrow (Dec 4) has been cancelled. Also, Vishakhapatnam Sainagar Shirdi train scheduled to depart from Vishakhapatnam today stands cancelled. The same train from the temple town to Vizag tomorrow too has been cancelled, a SCR release said on Thursday.
Apart from these trains many of them have been diverted to run via Gudur, Renigunta, Melpakam and Katpadi route.
These include Dhanbad-Allepy Express which left Dhanbad on Dec 1 and scheduled to arrive Allepy on Dec 3 (today); Shalimar Trivandrum Express which left Shalimar on Dec 1 and is scheduled to arrive Trivandrum today (Dec 3); Guwahati Bengaluru Express which left Guwahati on Dec 1 and is scheduled to arrive?Bengaluru today (Dec 3); Patna Bengaluru Express which left Patna on Dec 1 and arrives Bengaluru today (Dec 3); and Darbhanga-Mysore-Express which left Darbhanga on Dec 1 and scheduled to arrive Mysore today (Dec 3), the release said.
Other diverted trains are: Bengaluru-Guwahati Express, Yasvantpur Muzaffarpur Express, Jaipur Coimbatore Express and Pondicherry Bhubaneswar Express, which scheduled to depart from Pondicherry today.
Some trains which have been partially cancelled are: Vijayawada-Chennai Central Pinakini Express which is partially cancelled between Gudur and Chennai Central.
CST Mumbai-Chennai Central which left CST Mumbai on Dec 1 and is scheduled to arrive Chennai Central today (Dec 3) is partially cancelled between Arakkaonam and Chennai Central. Chennai Central CST Mumbai scheduled to depart Chennai Central today (Dec 3) is partially cancelled between Chennai Central and Arakkaonam.
While Guwahati Kochuveli special scheduled to depart Guwahati on Dec 2 (yesterday) at 23.25 hours has been rescheduled to 1300 hours today (Dec 3).
Meanwhile, in view of the flood situation in Chennai, the South Eastern Railway cancelled Tata-Alleppey Express. Due to incessant rains and flood in Chennai, Tata-Alleppey Express, the only daily express train linking the southern states with this part of the country, will remain cancelled today, said O P Sharma, Station Superintendent of Tatanagar.
The Dhanbad-Alleppey express will also remain cancelled today for the similar reason, the superintendent added.
North Western Railway (NWR) said that several trains from Rajasthan to Chennai would be cancelled due to heavy rains in the southern state, an official spokesman said here.
Chennai-Bikaner Express and Bhagat ki Kothi-Munnargudi Express trains would not run today, NWR's Chief PRO Tarun Jain said.
The Jaipur-Chennai Superfast has been cancelled for tomorrow, while Bikaner-Chennai Express will not run on December 6 due to non-availability of rack, he said.
