Actress Rimjhim Gupta at a hotel in Siliguri on Tuesday. She was in the 50-member film crew that had to cut shot their shooting schedule in Mirik by a day. (Kundan Yolmo)

Siliguri/Calcutta, June 10: Hundreds of tourists forced to come down from the Darjeeling hills yesterday had to spent the night at Tenzing Norgay Bus Terminus in Siliguri and New Jalpaiguri railway station.

“It was past 5pm yesterday when the hotel staff in Gangtok told us about a police directive asking tourists to leave,” Satyaranjan Hazra from Calcutta said. “It was raining heavily and with great difficulty we managed to get a vehicle that brought us to Siliguri at 12.30am.”

The six-member family, which included two children, spent the night at the bus terminus. “There was no food and we ate the puffed rice that we were carrying. At 4 in the morning, I hired a rickshaw and went all over Siliguri looking for accommodation, but in vain. I finally managed to get bus tickets to Calcutta,” Satyaranjan said.

The Hazras had train tickets for June 12 before their travel plans went awry.

Hannah, her boyfriend Sacha and eight others from London had planned to spend a week in Darjeeling before they were told to leave. They reached Siliguri at 2.30am. “We tried looking for accommodation, but the rates were crazy. In one place, they asked for Rs 3,000 for a tiny room,” she said.

While their eight friends headed for Nepal, Hannah and Sacha spent the night on the new foot bridge at New Jalpaiguri station. “Lots of people were sleeping there and we ate whatever the local vendors sold,” Hannah said as she waited for an evening train to Varanasi.

“We have asked hotel owners to do all it takes to provide shelter to tourists,” K.C. Ghosh, the secretary of Siliguri Hotel Owners’ Association, said. “They have been asked not to over-charge.”

Ghosh added that since last night there must have been at least 70,000-80,000 tourists in Siliguri, which can handle no more than 25,000.

The mayor of Siliguri, Bikash Ghosh, said: “We tried to accommodate as many tourists we could at Pantha Niwas and Youth Hostel. We have also asked the food plaza at Kanchenjunga Stadium to remain open at night.”

Tourism department officials said tourists could call the helplines (0353) 2511974 and (0353) 2516571. The SFI and DYFI, the student and youth wings of the CPM, have set up a help desk for tourists at the bus terminus.

The Northeast Frontier Railway ran a special train to Sealdah from New Jalpaiguri today and the NBSTC ran 10 buses to Calcutta instead of the usual three.

In Calcutta, people scurries to cancel train and air tickets to New Jalpaiguri and Bagdogra, respectively. An Air India spokesperson said there had been 72 cancellations on the flight to Bagdogra, which left with only 38 passengers. A Jet Airways official said cancellations on today’s flight had been “more than usual”, but all incoming flights were full.

An Eastern Railway official said: “Instead of a long waiting list, which is usual during this season, today’s New Jalpaiguri-bound Darjeeling Mail had lots of vacant seats.”