RailEnquiry

OLKATA: Nearly three years after the Jnaneswari Express disaster, train services will return to normal in Jangalmahal. The state government has granted the railways permission to run trains at 'whatever speed it feels appropriate' between Kharagpur and Tatanagar and Midnapore and Adra.

South Eastern Railway (SER) officials hope to start running mail and express trains along these routes at the top speed of 110 km/hr from Monday. At present, trains run at the speed of 75 km/hr through Jangalmahal.

"This is a positive development that will benefit passengers. We were waiting for a nod from the West Bengal government as law and order is a state subject," said minister of state for railways Adhir Chowdhury. who was disappointed when no state representative attended a high-level security meeting on the subject at the SER headquarters earlier this month.

After the Jnaneswari Express derailment in May, 2010, SER stopped running passenger- carrying trains through Maoist-affected areas of West Bengal, Odisha and Jharkhand at night. These restrictions continued for nearly one and a half years after which the state governments cleared night train running, but at a controlled speed of 75km/hr.

Though passenger harassment was considerably reduced after this, trains lost time while passing through the stretches identified as high-risk zones. Though the governments of Odisha and Jharkhand cleared the running of trains at normal speed a few months later, West Bengal remained jittery.

"The West Bengal government made certain recommendations. Many of these, like lighting along the tracks, were considered impractical.

Trains continued to run at 75 km/hr along the 134-km long Kharagpur-Tatanagar section and lost nearly 20-25 minutes on an average. The Midnapore-Adra stretch was not much of a problem as few express trains pass through it.

Finally, the Bengal government wrote to us, stating that the situation is conducive in Jangalmahal to run trains at normal speed. We hope to start running trains at normal speed in the next two to three days," an SER official said.