Train services remained largely affected in Chakradharpur and other divisions of South Eastern Railway (SER) throughout Sunday owing to commissioning of a subway on Purulia-Adra section.

The SER imposed a railway block - in layman terms, a halt in train movement - to facilitate completion and commissioning of the subway between Chharrah and Purulia stations, around 200km from Tatanagar station.

Senior officials at Garden Reach, the SER's headquarters in Calcutta, said several trains were cancelled, short-terminated or diverted during the day owing to the commissioning work.

A number of trains like Asansol-Ranchi MEMU Passenger, Kharagpur-Hatia Passenger and Adra-Barabhum Passenger, which pass through Chakradharpur division, were cancelled.

These apart, around half a dozen trains, were short-terminated. Asansol-Tatanagar MEMU Passenger ended its journey at Adra while the Tatanagar-Asansol MEMU Passenger was short-terminated at Purulia.

Similarly, Kharagpur-Purulia Intercity Express was short-terminated at Adra. On the return journey, it ran as Purulia-Kharagpur Intercity Express from Adra to Kharagpur. Other major trains that were short-terminated at Adra included Santragachi-Purulia Rupasi Bangla Express, Asansol-Purulia MEMU Passenger and Asansol-Barabhum MEMU Passenger.

The SER rescheduled Ranchi-Bankura-Garbeta Passenger on Sunday - it left Ranchi at 4.22pm instead of its actual departure time of 3.22pm.

Moreover, the railways diverted several others trains to minimise the impact of the railway block on the affected divisions.

Danapur-Tatanagar Express ran on a diverted route, via Joychadipahar-Adra-Kharagpur-Tatanagar, instead of Jaychandipahar-Purulia-Chandil and Tatanagar. Tatanagar-Dhanbad Subernarekha Express also took a detour via Purulia-Bokaro Steel City-Rajabera-Chandrapura-Dhanbad instead of regular Purulia-Adra and Dhanbad tracks.

A railway spokesperson from Chakradharpur division, A.K. Agarwal, said all the cancellations and diversions or short-terminations were applicable for Sunday only. "Normal rail traffic will be restored in all the affected divisions from Monday," he said.

The authorities claimed that they had taken necessary measures to ensure that passengers were not greatly inconvenienced.

"An additional ticket counter has been opened. Passengers can opt for refunds in case trains are delayed by over three hours due to diversions," said O.P. Sharma, an official at Tatanagar.

Regular announcements were made to inform passengers about the altered routes, the names and numbers of short-terminated or cancelled trains. However, several passengers cancelled or postponed their trips owing to the service disruption.

A passenger, Paritosh Singh, said he had to drop his plan of travelling to Dhanbad by Subernarekha Express on Sunday. "I was supposed to go to a relative's place in Dhanbad. But, when I came to know that the train would go through a diverted route, which would take at least two hours more than the usual, I cancelled the visit. Now, I will travel to Dhanbad next Sunday," said Singh, a Jamshedpur-based student leader.