Bhubaneswar, Oct. 15: Train and bus services were badly hit by Phailin and floods that followed the cyclone. While train services resumed on Monday, buses are yet to start operating in the flood-affected districts of Mayurbhanj, Balasore, Bhadrak and Jajpur.

East Coast Railway (ECoR) officials here said train services were cancelled in the Howrah-Visakhapatnam section on October 12 and 13 because of the storm.

“More than 20,000 passengers were stranded at various stations. Among them 10,000 were at Bhubaneswar and Puri stations,” said a railway official.

Forty-four local and express trains were cancelled.

Phailin uprooted high-tension towers at many locations on the Khurda Road-Berhampur section.

A large number of foot overbridges and platform shelters at Berhampur, Ganjam, Balugaon, Mancheswar and Khurda Road were either blown off or damaged.

“I was desperate to reach Calcutta. But when I reached Puri station on Sunday, I came to know that my train had been cancelled. I had to spend the entire day at the station,” said Biplab Sengupta, a tourist from Calcutta.

Interstate bus services to Jharkhand and Chhattisgarh were also hit by the flood situation in the city. Bus services to Bari, Dasrathpur, Singhpur and Managlpur in Jajpur district and Chanadabali and Aradi of Bhadrak district were also stopped. Though bus services to Balasore and Baripada were normal on the NH-5, many interior areas of Mayurbhanj and Balasore districts were cut off by the floods.

NH-60 was cut off when about three feet of water flowed over it disconnecting road communication to Calcutta on Monday. The road became usable again last night.

“More than 500 buses have stopped plying in the flood-affected districts. Bus services to Ganjam and Gajapati districts were hit because of the storm,” said State Private Bus Operators Association general secretary Debendra Sahu. He said services would only resume after water receded.