Bhubaneswar:
The tropical cyclone Phailin, that pounded coastal Odisha and Andhra Pradesh last night, destroyed railway signals and high-tension electricity wires and uprooted tracks and railway platforms at various stations, bringing the rail services in the region to a halt.
Huge cyclonic winds, packing at over 200 km an hour, hit the railway infrastructure at more than a dozen railway stations on the east coast, with thousands of passengers stranded at various stations, including Puri and Bhadrak.
"More than 100 trains have been cancelled in Bhadrak, Puri and Palasa sections while at least 25 other trains have been diverted," East Coast Railway spokesperson Anil Saxena said today.
The overbridges and platform shelters at Brahmapur, Ganjam, Somepeta, Balugaon, Mancheswar and Khurda Road stations were either blown away or damaged, the railways said in a press release.
The running of major trains between Kolkata and Chennai passing through Odisha have been affected by the tropical cyclone.