Members of Sarva Dharma Prarthana Sabha in Ranchi take part in a candlelight procession for Mumbai terror victims on Tuesday. Picture by Manik Bose

Ranchi, Dec. 2: Mumbai has not probably seen such an exodus of people from Jharkhand in recent times, not even when the MNS started its hate campaign against migrants from the Hindi heartland in October.

The waiting list for accommodation on trains leaving Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus and Kurla has started getting longer with every hour. The railways have stopped reservation in AC coaches too.

With the sleeper class waiting list for the 8610 Lokmanya Tilak Terminus-Ranchi Express on December 6 reaching 476 today, the railways website (www.indianrail.gov.in) has started showing “regret”, which means no more reservations are possible on the train.

The Mumbai-Howrah Gitanjali Express, which stops at Tatanagar, has no sleeper class accommodation till December 7 and for December 8, the waiting list is 170.

“I came back here as my relatives were anxious about my wellbeing after the terrorist attack and wanted to see me safe at home. There were several others like me on the train,” said Manohar Prasad, resident of a Hazaribagh village, as he waited for a bus after having reached the capital by the Lokmanya Tilak Terminus-Ranchi Express here this morning. He was accompanied by two friends from the same village in Hazaribagh.

A number of people working in Mumbai have fled the maximum city for their homes back in Jharkhand. While a few of them have plans to go back only after the situation at the financial capital becomes normal, many workers have decided shelved the idea of going back to Mumbai for the time being.

Jharkhand lost two persons — one from Giridih district and the other from Ranchi — in the terrorist attacks last week.

Although at least 50 cancellations for Mumbai-bound trains were recorded here in the past three days, railway officials said it had nothing to do with the terrorist attacks. “The Mumbai-bound trains are going packed just as they do in other seasons,” said Vivek Srivastava, the senior divisional commercial manager of Ranchi.

(Reservation status at 2100hrs on Tuesday)