Tejas train
Tejas Express trainTwitter/ Ministry of Railways

In a first of its kind move, all passengers aboard the Tejas Express on Saturday will be compensated Rs 250 each due to the train's delay of about two hours in both directions.

Around 451 passengers had boarded the train from Lucknow and 500 from New Delhi.

"We have sent a link to all the passengers on their mobile phone clicking on which they can claim compensation. Those who do so will get paid," said Ashwini Srivastava, Chief Regional Manager (CRM) of IRCTC in Lucknow.

Launched from Lucknow on October 4, Tejas is the first corporatised train of Indian Railways, operated by Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC).

On Saturday, Tejas started from Lucknow at around 8.55 am instead of its scheduled departure at 6.10 a.m and reached New Delhi at around 3.40 pm instead of 12.25 pm It departed from New Delhi at around 5.30 pm instead of 3.35 pm.

The cause of the delay was delayed maintenance. Any train before departing on its routine journey has to undergo primary maintenance. Tejas' maintenance could start at around 4 am on Saturday morning as a coach had derailed in the maintenance yard at Lucknow station during shunting.

To make up for the delay, passengers were served an extra tea, lunch and the refreshment given to them had 'sorry for the delay' printed on the packets. There were also announcements made to inform passengers that the train was delayed.

(With inputs from IANS.)