A group of 70-odd schoolgirls and teachers returning from an excursion to Araku Valley was stuck at a railway station in Odisha without adequate water and food for more than 13 hours on Monday because of a tribal blockade in three south Bengal districts.

The Class XII girls from The BSS School had boarded the Chennai Central-Santragachi AC Superfast Express at Vizag around 8.30pm on Sunday. They were scheduled to arrive in Calcutta at 10.30am on Monday, but the train could not move beyond Basta in Balasore district.

The point at which the train stopped is barely four hours from Howrah.

At 9pm, an announcement was made that the train would return to Balasore station “for refuelling”.

The train had barely moved when it was stopped again and brought back to Basta. Around 10.30pm, the train proceeded to Balasore and reached the station at 11.20pm.

“It’s a relief that we have reached Balasore. It’s safer here. We are told that refuelling is on. We hope the train and the washrooms will be cleaned as well,” principal Sunita Sen, who is accompanying the schoolgirls, said.

A relative of one of the students had arranged a dinner of roti and tadka for the group at Balasore station.

Till the train was stranded at Basta, there was panic at the prospect of spending the night there without even water.

“There was an announcement that the train would be going back to Balasore to refuel. But we had no information when we would be going back to Calcutta. But we knew that Balasore would be a better station to bide time,” the principal said.

Besides the Class XII students, the excursion group has three children less than five years old accompanying their mothers, all of whom teach at The BSS School.

The train had reached Rupsha, also in Odisha, around 7.30am before it stopped because of the blockade. Since all the shops at that station were shut, the train later moved about 18km to reach Basta around 2.30pm.

One teacher told Metro over phone that the toilets had become dirty and were not fit to be used by evening. The air-conditioning was being switched off and on to conserve power. It was only at Balasore station late in the night that air-conditioning was fully restored.