Bomb hoax delays Shatabdi by 3 hours

LUDHIANA: Passengers travelling by Shatabdi Express faced a tough time on Friday morning as the train reached Ludhiana station close to three hours late. Authorities had received a call, warning that a bomb was planted on board. It later turned out to be false. The relatives of travellers were seen waiting with their fingers crossed.
Sources said authorities received a call immediately after the train left Delhi, they stopped the train at Narela station, which is barely half-an-hour away from the national capital.The services of special dog squad were taken and passengers were asked to disembark. They took two hours and 35 minutes to conduct a thorough search. The train that has to reach city station at 11.20 am, arrived two hours 50 minutes late.
Accepting that confusion prevailed, station superintendent RK Sharma said, “Frantic family members of travellers rang
up to enquire about the safety of they kin. Passengers kept asking when they will reach their destination. But it is our duty to respond to calls as these relate to commuters’ safety.”
One of the commuters, Anish Kumar, said, “When we were asked to deboard at Narela station, we took it as a harassment as the exercise was delaying most of our plans after reaching the destination. We were kept in the dark about the bomb call and so were ignorant of the safety measures the authorities were taking for us.”
Another passenger, Manpreet Singh, said, “People opt for this train by shelling out extra money to reach in time. But such incidents compel them to keep other travelling options open. I fail to understand why miscreants resort to these nuisance.”