Banaras–Rajgir Express Diverted as Floodwater Hits ECR Bridge on Patna Route

East Central Railway diverted the 15137 / 15138 Banaras–Rajgir Express on Saturday, 5 September 2026, after water rose on railway bridge number 21 between Punpun and Parsa Bazar on the Patna–Howrah side. The pair was sent via Pandit Deen Dayal Upadhyaya Junction–Buxar–Ara–Patna instead of the usual PDU–Gaya–Patna path. ECR’s Chief Public Relations Officer Saraswati Chandra is the named spokesperson in the diversion tips.

The bridge is not in Varanasi city. Punpun–Parsa Bazar sits on the Bihar stretch feeding Patna. The Varanasi hook is the train: Banaras as origin or destination means passengers boarding or alighting on the Cantt / Banaras side inherit the longer run and the altered path. Honesty on geography is non-negotiable. A flooded bridge in Bihar does not become a flooded bridge at Rajghat by headline laziness.

A Dhanbad–Patna pair was also diverted on an alternate path in the same spell of water-related regulation, according to the same tip set. This story’s lead remains the Banaras–Rajgir express because that is the clear Banaras-linked service. Secondary diversions are noted, not expanded into a full ECR map redraw.

For travellers, diversion via Buxar and Ara usually means more time on the rake and a different set of halt expectations. Exact late-running minutes were not locked in the tip used here and will not be invented. Passengers holding 15137 or 15138 tickets around the Saturday regulation window were the ones told to watch current charts and station announcements rather than the printed path through Gaya.

Saraswati Chandra’s CPRO line is the attribution peg for the diversion fact. Primary agency is East Central Railway. This desk is not quoting a competing passenger WhatsApp forward as a timetable. When water sits against a numbered bridge, ECR’s regulation is the authority; the newsroom’s job is to carry the route change and the Banaras link without relocating the bridge.

Why it matters in Varanasi: Banaras-side passengers connect this city to Rajgir on that numbered pair. A flood-hit bridge east of Patna still cancels the simple Gaya path they expected. Families seeing off students or pilgrims on 15137 / 15138 needed the Buxar–Ara–Patna advice on Saturday, not a weather story about Assi.

The operational summary stays short. Bridge number 21, Punpun–Parsa Bazar, water rise, Saturday 5 September, Banaras–Rajgir 15137 / 15138 via PDU–Buxar–Ara–Patna, CPRO Saraswati Chandra, companion Dhanbad–Patna diversion on an alternate path. No claim that Varanasi Junction itself was underwater. No claim that Ganga ghats caused this particular bridge file.

Until ECR restores the regular PDU–Gaya–Patna routing for the Banaras–Rajgir pair, passengers should keep reading the diverted path as the working truth. The floodwater that forced the change is on a Bihar bridge. The inconvenience travels back to Banaras with the train’s name.