Dipak Mitra (in wheelchair) and his kin alight from the train after it got stranded near Puri for several hours. Picture by Pradip Sanyal

Bhubaneswar, July 8: Dipak Mitra, 80, a resident in Calcutta, had never imagined being stranded at a nondescript railway station such as Delang.

Suffering from paralysis, Mitra, along with hundreds of other passengers of Puri-Howrah Express, were left stranded at Delang following a “rail roko” agitation. After a six-hour wait, he was rushed to a nearby hospital.

The “rail roko” was staged to demand stoppage for express trains, especially Puri-Paradeep Express and Puri-Keonjhargarh Express, at Delang station. The protest forced cancellation and short termination of several trains, while some others were halted at stations such as Bhubaneswar and Khurda for a long time.

The short-terminated trains included Hatia-Puri Tapaswini Express and New Delhi-Puri Purushottam Express, while Puri-Howrah-Puri Express and Puri-Paradeep-Puri Express were cancelled.

The seven-hour protest came to an end at 1.45pm after the railway officials held talks with the agitators.

Hassled passengers at Bhubaneswar railway station were seen trying to catch buses to reach Puri where the famous rath yatra of Lord Jagannath is scheduled to take place on July 10.

“My train was short-terminated at Bhubaneswar. I have to catch a bus to Puri. Being new to this place, I am finding this to be a tough task,” said Amiya Kumar, who hails from Bihar.

Railway officials sounded helpless and said only the railway board could take a decision on the stoppage of express trains at Delang.