Puri-Howrah Vande Bharat stranded for 4 hrs after tree falls on train, overhead wires during storm

BHUBANESWAR/KOLKATA: The Puri-Howrah Vande Bharat Express (22896) was stranded between Baitarani Road and Manjuri Road stations in Odisha's Jajpur district for around four hours since 4.30pm on Sunday after the overhead power line got damaged due to a storm near Bhadrak. A diesel loco brought the train to Kenduapada station at 9.04pm, from where it left without the diesel loco at 9.35pm. It reached Bhadrak at 9.52pm and left for Howrah at 9.54pm.
Due to damage to the train, the Howrah-Puri-Howrah Vande Bharat Express on Monday has been cancelled. An SER release said, "The train will remain cancelled due to repairing of damages caused by thunderstorm on 21.05.2023 in Cuttack-Bhadrak section of East Coast Railway."
This train was flagged off by PM Narendra Modi from Puri on May 18 and started its regular run from Saturday. On Sunday, it left Puri at 1.54pm and passed Baitarani Road station at 4.30pm. Right after this, an uprooted tree fell on the overhead equipment (OHE), from which the train draws power. The front portion of the train was damaged by the tree.
When the incident took place, half of the train was on the Baitarani river bridge.
Because the overhead wires were damaged, a relief diesel engine was rushed to move the train from the spot. The train started moving slowly around 8:15pm.
"On the way back, a little after Jajpur, the train came to a halt with loud bangs on the bridge across the Baitarani river. We got scared as the lights went out. The major problems are suffocation inside the train and the washrooms being unusable. Even though the doors were opened, the windows are fixed. We tweeted to the railway ministry and reached out to a few news channels to inform them of our ordeal," said Sumanta Basu, an insurance advisor in LIC.
"There was no announcement for the first four hours. The first announcement was made at 7.30pm to inform passengers that the lights will be switched off for a brief while. But there has been no communication from the officials," said Prasenjit Ghosh, a schoolteacher from Kolkata.
"The automatic washrooms were unusable and there was no water in the washrooms either," said Shampa Ghosh, an LIC employee.