Thane: A consumer court has asked Central Railway authorities to pay Rs 20,000 to a senior citizen who suffered hardship as he was neither informed in advance about cancellation of his coach in train, nor provided proper alternative travel arrangements.

The Thane District Consumer Redressal Forum gave the order on a complaint of Pooransingh Mehra of Vadavali in Thane's Ambernath township. He stated that on February 8, 2011, he had booked a ticket to travel on May 2 from Kalyan to Bareilly in train 14313 Mumbai LTT-Bareilly Express. He was issued a confirmed reserved berth no. 60 in AC sleeper coach B-2. However, on the day of journey when he reached Kalyan station, there was an announcement that coach B-1 had been cancelled and B-2 was 14th from the engine.