Train services in Bhubaneswar to resume from May 5: East Coast Railways

BHUNANESWAR: East Coast Railways on Saturday announced that train services in Bhubaneshwar will resume from Sunday after the services were suspended due to cyclone Fani, which had made landfall in Puri district of Odisha on May 3.

"Train services will run normally from Bhubaneswar from tomorrow, May 5. This is for originating trains from Bhubaneswar," the East Coast Railways said in a tweet.

It is to be noted that East Coast Railways have succeeded in resuming its services in less than 24 hours of the cyclone battering in the state. Bhubaneswar-Tirupati Express and Visakhapatnam Intercity Express, however, will not resume their normal run on Sunday because their is a non-availability of a pairing train. 

Prashanti Express, Visakha Express, Rajdhani Express, Konark Express and Hirakhand express which originate from Bhubaneshwar will resume their normal operations from Sunday. East Coast Railways also tweeted confirming that fourteen passenger train services are set to resume in the state from Sunday. 

After casuing massive damages at Puri, Bhubaneswar and other parts in Odisha on Friday, cyclonic Fani moved towards West Bengal and made landfall in the state early on Saturday. "Severe Cyclone FANI weakened into a Cyclonic Storm and lay centred at 60 km NW of Kolkata at 0530 IST of 4th May. To weaken into Deep Depression and move into Bangladesh by noon," IMD had tweeted. 

After entering West Bengal, Cyclone Fani lashed several towns and cities including Digha, Haldia, Tajpur, Mandarmani, Sandehskhali, Contai, Diamond Harbour, Bankura, Sriniketan, Asansol, Dumdum and Alipore. Apart from Kharagpur and Kolkata, the cyclone also affected several areas of Burdwan district. 

Cyclone Fani is the most powerful tropical storm to hit India in 20 years but it failed to cause widespread death and destruction due to the pre-emptive measures taken by the state government and other agencies.