Gwalior (Madhya Pradesh): Passengers stood perplexed at the Delhi's Hazrat Nizamuddin station after they found their reserved coach missing from the Hazrat Nizamuddin–Yesvantpur Sampark Kranti Express on Wednesday! Indian Railways, apparently, forgot to add the BE1 coach to the long route train, even after allotting reserved 3rd AC seats to the passengers.
Passengers crammed into other coaches and continued their journey for some hundred kilometres. When the train stopped at the Gwalior railway station, the fuming passengers alighted and staged protests against the railway authorities. Some of them alleged that staff members threatened them and asked them to travel quietly instead of protesting.
Finally, the 'missing' 3rd AC coach was attached to the train in Gwalior.
According to reports, the Railways had accepted bookings for an additional AC coach, but when the train departed from Delhi’s Hazrat Nizamuddin station, the coach was missing. Passengers with confirmed tickets were forced to crowd into other compartments, leading to chaos inside the train.
It was only when passengers complained about not finding their seats that officials realised the reserved coach was missing. The incident created confusion among both passengers and railway staff.
The train was later halted at Gwalior station, where officials hurried and attached the missing coach before allowing the train to continue its journey.
Due to this error, passengers had to wait for several hours, and the train’s schedule was delayed.
Reacting to the incident, Himanshu Shekhar Upadhyay, Chief Public Relations Officer (CPRO) of Northern Railway, said an inquiry has been ordered to find out why the coach was not attached. “We are checking where the mistake occurred. Once the facts are clear, action will be taken accordingly,” he said.
He added that instructions to attach additional coaches come from the railway headquarters, and in this case, there seemed to be a lack of coordination between departments, which led to the blunder.
With Inputs From FP News Service
