NEW DELHI: What happens when a fast passenger train, passing through a railway station junction at high speed, is signalled to the wrong track to go ahead?

          The Mumbai (Bombay)-bound Rajdhani Express from New Delhi railway station was diverted to the Howrah route at the next station, Tilak Marg, by the station master who mistook it for Howrah Rajdhani Express recently. He realised the mistake about half an hour later and fortunately could bring it out from the track. Another Express was roaring in from the opposite direction the next few minutes on the same track! Several hundreds of passengers had a miraculous escape.

          HYDERABAD: Seventeen Gujaratis brought here by an unscrupulous travel agent for their safe passage to the US on forged passports have landed up in police custody.

           The travel agent, who charged Rs 18 lakh per person for sending people seeking a fortune to the US, has made good his escape. The duped travellers are said to have had parted with Rs 2-3 lakh already, and the balance was to be paid on their safe arrival in the US. Of the 17, three were nabbed when they were about to board a flight for Dubai en route to their destination, and the others from a hotel where they were put up.

          NEW DELHI: A corporate executive who got delayed at a meeting here devised a novel method to catch his plane for Bangalore recently: He made an anonymous call to the airport over his mobile that a bomb had been placed in the Indian Airlines plane.

           The plane had to be searched and the flight got delayed, as he wanted, by two hours. The executive had almost succeeded, but the airport authorities got suspicious at one passenger arriving unusually late and looking quite nervous. The police was called in. The number of the mobile he was hiding matched the one recorded by the caller ID equipment at the airport. He was taken into custody and the plane left for Bangalore without him.

          JAIPUR: Over 100 passengers have been found travelling without ticket on the luxurious Palace on Wheels tourist train recently.Travelling as state guests, they included top Government officials, businessmen, tour operators and journalists.

           Only about 30 passengers were found to be holding valid tickets in the raid conducted by the Central Bureau of Investigation. However, the Rajasthan Government has stated that they had only taken media persons for a free ride with a view to promoting the tourist train.

          LUCKNOW: A 17-year old, Rajesh Kumar, reversed an empty passenger train from the Varanasi shunting yard and drove it for over 100 km till the railway authorities could derail it to bring it to a halt near Allahabad. The boy's adventure killed one person and injured another. The train passed through 13 stations in the wee hours and, to avert a disaster, was allowed to run on tracks where no train was to pass.

           It is learnt Rajesh got into the cabin when the driver was out and the engine was on. Presumably, he fiddled with the levers in the engine room and the train moved on.

- India Overseas