Mid-Day

Bhuj,  May 31: A bomb hoax on the Bhuj-Mumbai Sayaji Express left hundreds stranded outside Bhuj railway station for nine hours on Tuesday, and forced at least half the passengers to cancel their tickets.

The train, which was supposed to leave Bhuj at 8.30 pm on Monday, finally departed at 5.30 am yesterday because of the bomb hoax. It arrived at Bandra Terminus at 10.15 pm, over eight hours late.

When Bhuj station received the hoax call, the police evacuated the train. The military was called in from Rajkot and the train was taken to its shed for a check. Dozens of passengers was forced to camp on the road outside the station.

Many fell sick in the unhygienic conditions, forcing half to cancel their reservations. The railways refunded the entire amount.

Vinod Sohata (31) from Gandhidham said, “The train was extremely late. We faced many problems because things were very disorganised. Our children had no food or water for hours. We even ordered dinner but no one brought it to us.”

Dhanji Gala (45) from Bhuj, who now lives in Ghatkopar, said, “We are exhausted. We were asked to stay away from the station after the bomb hoax. We spent the entire night on the road. Road pe khaya, road pe soya.”

Parvati Bhanushali (37), another passenger, said, “We spent the night on the road, and most of the children were vomiting. We couldn’t even cancel our tickets.”

Pranai Prabhakar, chief public relations officer, Western Railway, said, “We could not have allowed to train to leave without police clearance. We will look into the difficulties that passengers faced.”