April 23: Several examines from Bihar could not write the Bengal joint entrance exams today because of the late arrival of the Mithila Express in Howrah.

The Eastern Railway has ordered a probe to find out the reasons behind the delay.

The Mithila Express, which started from Raxaul at 10am yesterday, was to arrive at Howrah at 4am today, covering a distance of 693km in 18 hours.

A group of examinees from Bihar said the train arrived at Howrah at 10.30am, more than six hours behind schedule and half an hour before the exam was to start.

The examinees said they could only reach the exam venue - Jadavpur University - around 11.30am and were refused permission to write the test.

"What could we do if the train arrived late? It was not our fault that we reached the venue late. Who could have anticipated that the train would run six-and-a-half-hours behind schedule?" said Akash Sinha, one of the examinees.

Sinha, who boarded the train at Muzaffarpur, was among the 10-odd students from Bihar who failed to write the engineering entrance exams because of the late arrival of the train.

Ravi Mahapatra, the chief public relations officer of the Eastern Railway, said they would launch a probe to find out what caused the delay. "We will probe the allegation. The railways ran a pair of special trains between Patna and Howrah for the benefit of the examinees," Mahapatra said.

"The 03262 Patna-Howrah train, consisting of 15 coaches, had started at 11.45pm on Friday and arrived at Howrah at 12.05pm on Saturday. The 03261 Howrah-Patna would leave Howrah at 10.50pm on Sunday."

Apart from these two trains, Mahapatra said, there are several others from Bihar to Howrah.

"It is always advisable to reach the city where the exam venues are located a day before the exam," he said.

JEE board registrar Dibeyndu Kar said they did not receive any complaint from any centre about examinees being inconvenienced because of the late arrival of trains. "We also heard that the railways arranged special trains for examinees from Bihar," Kar said.

The results are expected to be announced by June 5.