New Delhi, July 27: In yet another ‘laurel’ for Indian railways, a goods wagon booked in 2014 took 3.5 years to complete 1400 Km journey to reach its destination in Uttar Pradesh (UP). As per reports, the wagon was booked by a trader to transport fertilizers from the Visakhapatnam port to UP’s Basti but when there was no sign of the wagon for several months, the trader contacted the Railway officials.

The officials had no explanation as to why the wagon booked to transport fertilizers from a public sector company Indian Potash Limited, reached its destination in Uttar Pradesh’s Basti after such a long time. Despite the trader’s best efforts to reach out to the railway authorities in UP and Andhra Pradesh, the authorities failed to track the wagon and its whereabouts.

The wagon finally rolled into the Basti railway station on Thursday after travelling to several railway stations for such a long time which led to the decay of the consignment.

This isn’t the first time that Indian Railways messed up destinations and timelines, in March a Delhi-bound passenger train 64464 travelling from Panipat to Delhi landed up on the wrong station. The train took a different course and reached the Old Delhi Railway station instead of New Delhi Railway station. One employee was suspended and the authorities blamed.

Last month, new coaches attached to trains running between New Delhi and Ranchi went missing. The coached belonged to premium trains such as the Rajdhani Express and Sampark Kranti Express went missing. The authorities had no clue and speculated that organised gangs were behind the theft of the bogies.

Courtesy: www.timesnownews.com



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New Delhi (PTI): Defending champions Royal Challengers Bengaluru will take on Sunrisers Hyderabad in the IPL 2026 opener in Bengaluru on March 28 as the BCCI announced the first phase of the tournament schedule amid concerns around players' travel arrangements due to the ongoing West Asia conflict.

All matches scheduled at the Chinnaswamy Stadium remain subject to clearance from the Karnataka government appointed expert committee, which is scheduled to meet on March 13 to assess venue preparedness in the wake of the deadly stampede at the stadium last season.

The BCCI announced the schedule of the first 20 games on Wednesday and will unveil the full schedule once the dates of elections in three states -- Tamil Nadu, Assam and West Bengal -- are announced.

Besides the state elections, the escalating conflict in West Asia will also be at the forefront of BCCI officials' minds. The war has wreaked havoc to international travel with operations of major airports like Doha and Dubai being heavily restricted.

As a result of that, some of the squad members of South Africa and West Indies are yet to reach home a week after the completion of their T20 World Cup campaign.

It remains to be seen if IPL bound players of those two nations report to their respective teams in time.

"There was a substantial delay in departure of West Indies and South Africa players. It would be a tough task to get them back to India on time. Plus the airfares have gone up substantially due to the war in West Asia," a team official told PTI.

Additionally, hotels across India are facing cooking gas shortage due to the raging conflict and on Tuesday, the central government invoked Essential Commodities Act to ensure uninterrupted supply of domestic cooking gas.

Chennai Super Kings CEO Kasi Viswanthan told PTI that he is expecting his players from the West Indies and South Africa -- Akeal Hossein and Dewald Brevis, to join the team well before their IPL opener.

"We are expecting no delays from their end," he said.

The second game of the opening weekend will see Mumbai Indians host Kolkata Knight Riders at the Wankhede Stadium and the opening weekend will not feature any double-headers.

A total of 20 matches will be played across 10 venues: Bengaluru, Mumbai, Guwahati, New Chandigarh, Lucknow, Kolkata, Chennai, Delhi, Ahmedabad and Hyderabad.

"During the season, Royal Challengers Bengaluru will play five home matches in Bengaluru and two in Raipur. Punjab Kings will play four home matches in New Chandigarh and three in Dharamshala, while Rajasthan Royals will play three home matches in Guwahati and four in Jaipur," said the BCCI in a statement.

"During this period (the first 16 days), the tournament will feature four double-headers, with the afternoon matches beginning at 03:30 PM IST and the evening matches commencing at 07:30 PM IST.

"Following the opening encounter on Saturday, Mumbai Indians will take on Kolkata Knight Riders at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai on Sunday.

"The matches scheduled in Bengaluru are subject to clearance from the Expert Committee constituted by the Government of Karnataka," the BCCI added.