A consignment of fertilizer took almost four years to travel a distance 1,326 km and reach its destination, courtesy the railways. A goods train wagon carrying 1,316 bags of Di-ammonium Phosphate fertilizer was booked on November 10, 2014. When it reached Basti railway station in Uttar Pradesh from Visakhapatnam on Wednesday, even the rail officials were taken by surprise.

The distance is otherwise covered in 42 hours. The Chief Public Relation Officer of North Eastern Railway zone, Sanjay Yadav, said, "Sometimes, when some wagon or bogie becomes sick [unfit to ferry], it is sent to the yard and it seems that the same happened in this case, too." The consignee is Ramchandra Gupta, a businessman of Basti in Uttar Pradesh, and the wagon was booked in his name in 2014 from Visakhapatnam through Indian Potash Limited (IPL), Yadav said.