Titli left behind a trail of destruction at various railway stations between Berhampur and Palasa leading to cancellation and rescheduling of trains. Stations and railway tracks in Ganjam and Gajapati districts have been the most affected.

While several station buildings at various places between Berhampur and Palasa were damaged, platform shelters and foot overbridges were also damaged in both the districts. “Signalling pole and overhead electric masts have been damaged at some places between Palasa and Kottabomali stations. Electricity feed to overhead masts is not holding at various places between Berhamapur and Kottabomali in Andhra Pradesh. Several uprooted trees also fell on the railway tracks affecting train services,” said an official of the East Coast Railway (ECoR).

The ECoR had earlier decided to stop train services between Khurda Road and Vizianagaram from both the directions from 10pm on Wednesday in view of Titli.

Several teams, including track specialists, bridge engineers, overhead electricity engineers, conducted a detailed study of the cyclone’s impact between Berhampur-Palasa and Palasa-Kottabomali section.

An ECoR official said that following review of the feasibility and safety of train operations, it had been decided to run service on routes that were earlier declared as cancelled and diverted. The trains included Howrah-Secunderabad Falaknuma Express, Howrah-Chennai Mail, Shalimar-Nagercoil Gurudev Express, Howrah-Chennai Coromondal Express, Howrah-Tiruchirapalli Express and Kamakhya-Yesvantpur AC Express. However, operations of 11 trains remained cancelled.

“Our staff have been asked to restore the lines at the earliest. We are lucky that the extent of damage was less as expected. We are hopeful of resuming train service in Ganjam and Gajapati districts soon,” said a railway official.