RailEnquiry

JAMSHEDPUR: The 48-hour Maoist bandh affected inter-state bus services on Saturday and Sunday. Most of the 180 buses, which run from Jharkhand to Bihar, Odisha and West Bengal, remained off roads. However, buses plied on some routes within the state during the day."On an average, 20-30% of the buses reported normal business during the bandh period," said A K Singh, a functionary at Jamshedpur Private Minibus Owners' Association.Many passengers, who were returning home from the three neighbouring states, had a harrowing time as bus owners remained indecisive till the last moment about resuming services. "For long hours (private) bus operators kept assuring us about resuming the service and later they cancelled the tickets," said 57-year-old Ashok Singh, resident of Kadma who was supposed to board a bus to Aurangabad in Bihar.Bus operators denied reports of keeping passengers stranded at the depot for long hours. "Few long-distance buses that resumed services on revised schedule kept passengers waiting for sometime at the depot," said the outfit functionary.Buses which were scheduled late in the evening on Saturday and Sunday were cancelled. "There's no record as such (to ascertain the business loss) but certainly the loss is into several lakhs," said a bus operator.

Owing to the cancellation of buses, passengers turned to railways leading to a rush at Tatanagar railway station on both days. Apart from the Bihar-bound express trains, services on Chakradharpur, Chaibasa, Barbil and Purulia routes witnessed heavy rush.