New Delhi-Bhubaneswar Rajdhani halts for mystery woman

RANCHI: A Rajdhani train made an unscheduled stop at Muri, 60km from here, Thursday morning apparently to allow on board a passenger who, insiders said, was the daughter of a senior official of Ranchi railway division. Curiously, no one in the railway hierarchy in Ranchi seemed to know that the 22824 express to Bhubaneswar from New Delhi was not just halted for three minutes at the junction, but also rerouted from yard tracks meant for galloping trains to tracks along platform three. According to the railway timetable, the New Delhi-Bhubaneswar Rajdhani is scheduled to stop at Bokaro at 7.35am. The next stop is Tatanagar, where the arrival time is 10.35am. On Thursday, the train made an unscheduled stop at Muri at 8.30am. The woman passenger, whose name Muri station authorities couldn't confirm, boarded the train at the time. The mystery was compounded by the statements of two senior railway officials involved in the day-to-day operation of trains in the sector. M.S. Khan, the stationmaster of Muri, said he went by orders of his seniors to help a woman board the train in the morning, but by evening he changed his statement to say that he did not escort anyone to the Rajdhani. He said he was merely checking to see why the train had stopped. Senior divisional operations manager, Ranchi, M.R. Acharya, whose daughter was apparently the one who boarded the Rajdhani from Muri, denied he was in any way involved. "My daughter boarded the train from Bokaro," he said after dodging The Telegraph's calls since morning. He insisted that he did not know why the express train had stopped at Muri junction. But Khan's flip-flop was most startling. "The operations division asked us to stop the train for a minute and help a lady passenger board the B-3 coach. We followed the orders," he told in the morning. He even explained that the train, which usually crossed Muri on Line 5 (yard tracks), was routed to Line 3 to stop at platform three for around three minutes yesterday. Khan also admitted to helping the passenger, "carrying luggage and travelling to Bhubaneswar", board the train, insisting he was not aware of her identity. However, in the evening, the stationmaster retracted his earlier statement. "The train stopped for a minute or two and I went to the platform to check what was wrong," he said. Asked once again if boarding privilege was extended to a VIP passenger and whether halting the Rajdhani at an unscheduled station was breach of safety protocol, he clammed up. A Ranchi railway division insider claimed Acharya used his clout to help his daughter as she needed to travel to Bhubaneswar. This despite Ranchi having a direct link to Bhubaneswar. Tapaswini Express leaves from Hatia every evening and arrives at Bhubaneswar the next morning. "I cannot say why he (Acharya) did not prefer to send his daughter by Tapaswini," the source said, adding that this was not the first time the Rajdhani was stopped at Muri for the officer's daughter. "It is kind of a regular affair," he claimed, but could not reveal details of precedents. The Rajdhanis, introduced between the national capital and state capitals in 1969, are among the fastest in Indian Railways and given highest priority in terms of right of way, passenger amenities and security. Vijay Kumar, additional divisional railway manager of Ranchi, was aghast when told of the Rajdhani's unscheduled halt. "This is unprecedented as far as I can recall. It is not possible, barring a medical situation. Even I don't have the privilege of stopping a Rajdhani train anywhere I want and get on board. A passenger can be allowed to get off the train only in case of a medical emergency. I will immediately enquire why the train stopped." Sanjay Ghosh, chief public relations officer of South Eastern Railway, also expressed surprise. "We definitely need to understand the extreme reasons for which the train was stopped at an unscheduled station," he said. -The Telegraph Calcutta