M’luru: Railways trace ‘unreachable’ 16-yo boy on maiden solo train journey after anxious father’s tweet

 

Hours into his first solo train journey, a 16-year-old boy who boarded a train from Mangaluru Central station gave his family the jitters after he went unreachable.

On April 19 at 5 am Shantanu boarded the Parashuram Express train from here to visit his ancestral home in Kerala’s Kottayam. His relatives were supposed to pick him up from Piravam railway station between Ernakulam and Kottayam at 2.30 pm.

Shantanu’s parents had given him a mobile phone for any emergency as this was the first time he was traveling alone. Around 10 am, Shantanu’s father Kishan Rao called him on the phone but was shocked to find it switched off. After trying the number for over 30 minutes, a tense Kishan Rao tweeted the railway minister mentioning the ticket PNR and sought his assistance to trace his son.

Within 15 minutes of the tweet, Rao got a call from the railways seeking further details and the RPF was notified of the matter. As per a TOI report, four-armed RPF personnel boarded the train at Shornur junction and began calling out Shantanu’s name. Finally much to the relief of his father, he got a call from his Shantanu at 11.08 am.

Reportedly Shantanu had fallen asleep during the journey. It was only when the RPF police asked him to contact his father did he realise that his phone got switched off.

Meanwhile Kishan has expressed his gratitude to the Railway’s department for responding swiftly to his tweet and ensuring the safety of his son during the journey.