India is a big country and people routinely get lost. However, in this advanced age, it is somewhat hard to believe that an entire train can go missing, but that is precisely what happened in Bihar, a northern state in the country of the sadhus.
While the world still reels from the shock of a plane that went missing, Indian Railways lost an entire train for 17 whole days, reported India TV News . An Indian passenger train running en-route from Gorakhpur to Muzaffarpur, a rather trivial distance of just 241 kilometers, vanished and railway authorities simply had no clue as to its whereabouts.
As per Indian Railways’ own admission, the Gorakhpur-Muzaffarpur passenger train went missing from Hajipur railway station in Bihar. The passenger train “went missing” on the night of August 25, after the derailment of a goods train which led to the diversion of several trains on other routes. According to officials, on the late night of August 25, a nine coach goods train overturned at Ghughli Bazar station on Gorakhpur-Narkatiaganj route, forcing all the trains running on that route to divert onto a different route via Deoria, Chhapra, and Varanasi.
Incidentally, all these places are popular tourist destinations. But owing to the “off-season,” the trains plying these routes are majorly empty. Hence rail authorities weren’t overly concerned about a few passengers arriving a little late to their destinations.
What the railway authorities clearly overlooked was the fact that Indians are very accommodating, and as soon as the passengers realized that were being taken for a ride, literally, by the railways, simply disembarked and continued via other modes of transportation to their intended destinations. Meanwhile, the driver continued on the rerouted track assuming the railway authorities in the main office were aware of the train’s position since they were the ones who put her there. Assuming all was well, the driver, blissfully unaware of the uproar about this “missing” train, chose not to update the authorities.
Divisional Manager in the Samastipur railway division, Arun Malik, further stated that no police case was registered regarding the “missing” train since the railways were themselves looking for it. Railways in India have their own security personnel and they were the ones who began searching for the train.
The missing train was finally traced to another division in the north after 17 whole days, reported India Today . Needless to say, it was completely intact and the driver had to be informed about the hoopla about the “missing” train.
[Image Credit | Textually]
