Northern Railways restore rail traffic in Punjab

The rail traffic in north India was restored after 36 hours following protests in Punjab over the killing of a Sikh sect leader in Viennaa, a Northern Railways spokesperson said.

In a big relief to passengers, the rail traffic in north India was restored this afternoon after 36 hours following protests in Punjab over the killing of a Sikh sect leader in Vienna.

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"Rail traffic was restored in Punjab at 3.30 pm this afternoon and the first train left from Jammu Tawi to Varanasi via Punjab",a Northern Railways spokesperson told PTI.

Rail traffic was badly affected for nearly 36 hours in Punjab because of the spiralling violence there.

Northern Railways had to cancel as many as 30 trains on Monday and four trains on Tuesday's afternoon.

Thousands of passengers were stranded at railway stations because of the halted train service and they were provided shelter at Gurudwaras and railway colonies.

Food was also being provided free of cost by the Northern Railway Women's Welfare Organisation, he said.

Railways had cancelled over 30 trains on Monday and regulated another 10 because of the violence. Over 14 trains were also left stranded midway at several stations in the state as protesters squatted on rail tracks.

The violence also caused large scale damage to Railway properties, with sources saying properties worth crores were destroyed due to burning of coaches and stone pelting at the locomotives.