Several stranded in Jammu as 40 trains cancelled

Jammu: Thousands of passengers are stranded in Jammu and Kashmir as railway authorities have cancelled over 40 trains since Friday due to an ongoing agitation by farmers in neighbouring Punjab, officials said.

"A total of 40 trains were cancelled since yesterday (Friday)," an official of the Northern Railways said on Saturday.

He said only a few trains left the Jammu railway station on a different route on Friday, while early Saturday morning rains in Delhi forced cancellation of some more trains bound for Jammu. "Twenty trains were cancelled on Saturday. Some trains scheduled later in the day are likely to leave the Jammu station for their destinations," the official said.

The cancellation of trains has left thousands of passengers stranded in Jammu and they were seen making desperate attempts to get information from railway authorities. "We had come for the Mata Vaishno Devi pilgrimage and came to know that all the trains have got cancelled due to the farmers' agitation in Punjab," Neha, a woman from Haryana, said as she looked for buses or taxis to leave with her family.