Siliguri, Oct. 29: Tomorrow?s holiday special ride of the Darjeeling Himalayan Railway (DHR) stands cancelled once again.

But this time, the railways could have saved the 30 enthusiasts, who had booked seats on the train for a joy ride, from harassment if it had coordinated properly with the Indian Rail Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC), the marketing wing of the DHR that looks after the booking of chartered rides on the toy train.

As early as September 3, the IRCTC had booked three days of chartered rides from October 30 for Vinod Chopra Productions for the shooting of Parineeta at different locations between Sukna and Darjeeling.

Despite that, bookings were made for the holiday special train (which was launched on October 2) for tomorrow. It was only yesterday that the North-East Frontier Railway informed that the service had been cancelled and passengers who had booked tickets would get a full refund.

?We had to cancel the holiday special train for tomorrow because a chartered ride of the DHR is booked for a film shooting,? said R.K. Singh, the chief executive officer of DHR and senior area manager, New Jalpaiguri Railway (NJP) station.

?We had to cancel the holiday special train because we do not have enough coaches to run that as well as another train for the shooting simultaneously,? Singh added.

Asked why the railways had overlooked the film shooting dates earlier while opening the booking for Saturday?s holiday special, Singh said it was because of some confusion. ?There was confusion over confirmation of the shooting dates, which is why bookings were allowed on the holiday special train,? he clarified.

Anjan Banerjee, a consultant with IRCTC, said: ?The chartered ride for the film-shoot was booked as early as September first week. The bookings for the holiday special train is done by the railways and only they will be able to explain why the bookings were made and then cancelled.?

This is the fourth time that the holiday special has been cancelled since its launch.

Tarak Nath Bhattacharya, the public relations officer and assistant commercial manager of North-East Frontier Railway, however, assured more smooth rides for the DHR holiday special. ?The response generated by the holiday special train is tremendous. From November, we will be organising the rides on Saturday as well as Sunday,? he said.