Bhubaneswar/Cuttack, May 31: When Dillip Biswas boarded a Bhubaneswar-bound bus in Ranchi last night, he did not have the faintest idea that he would have to go without food and water for over 10 hours today.

The 44-year-old contractor, who regularly shuttles between Calcutta and Phulbani, was stranded at the Baramunda bus stand since 5am, waiting for a bus to the Odisha district. “I called up a friend, who informed me that a ‘Bharat Bandh’ was on here. I am praying for the roadside eateries to open soon. I am hungry and thirsty. The condition of pipe-water supply at the bus terminal is pathetic,” Biswas said.

Like Biswas, thousands of people had a miserable time as a 12-hour nationwide bandh threw life off tracks. The dawn-to-dusk shutdown was called by various political parties, including the ruling Biju Janta Dal (BJD), to protest the Centre’s recent decision to hike petrol prices by Rs 7.50 per litre.

Suresh Nayak, 52, a coal mine worker from Dakara in Ranchi, shared Biswas’s fate. He and his wife were also stranded at the same bus stand, without food or water. “We were not aware of the bandh while boarding the bus from Ranchi. We were supposed to attend an important family event in Ganjam this morning but cannot figure out how to reach there. Our relatives are worried but helpless,” said Nayak.

This important bus terminal of the capital caters to around 30,000 to 40,000 people daily. While more than 500 private buses use the facility, 50 buses of the Odisha State Road Transport Corporation pick passengers from here to various destinations across the state. Not a single one of the fleet of 95 city buses rolled until this evening.

Almost all the 113 business establishments, barring three or four shops, on the premises of the Baramunda bus terminal were also closed. “Usually, I make sales worth around Rs 10,000 daily, but today, my earnings won’t amount to even Rs 2,000 and that is if, at all, I manage to do well in the evening hours,” said Durga Madhab Sahu, a trader who runs a shop on the bus terminal premises.

With a disruption in city bus services and nearly 17,000 autorickshaws staying off the road, commuters were faced with great difficulty. Office goers were the worst sufferers.

“I could not spot a single bus near Vani Vihar Square to go to my office in Cuttack. Nor was there any autorickshaw. So I decided to skip office for the day,” said Jayant Moharana, an employee of a private organisation.

The scene at the Bhubaneswar railway station was equally gloomy. Train services were hit as the bandh supporters squatted on tracks at various stations across the state.

Seikh Basir, 37, who arrived in the capital from Bangalore by Prashanti Express this morning, struggled to find an autorickshaw to take him to the bus terminal. The middle-aged employee of an export company in the Garden City had a tough time convincing bikers and cyclists to drop him to the Baramunda bus terminal with the hope of catching a jitney to his hometown, Jajpur.

“I literally had to beg people to help me get to the terminal and when I finally reached there, I was told the buses won’t ply until after the bandh. The protest against the petrol price hike is genuine but bandhs cause a lot of inconvenience to common people like us. We are the ones who are always caught between the devil and the deep blue sea,” Basir said.

Commuters in Cuttack went through a harrowing time as the entire public transport system in the city was also paralysed. While nearly 1,000 buses and 5,000 autorickshaws stayed off the roads today, the Durg-Puri Express, Bhubaneswar-Lokmanya Tilak Express, Shalimar-Nagarcoil Express and Chennai-Howrah Express were detained.