Title - Howrah line hit as goods train derails in Bihar

NEW DELHI/SASARAM: Twenty six wagons of a goods train derailed near Bhabua station in Bihar's Kaimur district in the wee hours of Friday morning, disrupting the movement of around 70 trains in the Howrah-New Delhi route.The incident has brought services in the busy Gaya-Mughalsarai section of the East Central Railway (ECR) to a complete halt. At least six trains to and from the capital have been cancelled while over 16 others have been diverted.Almost all up and down trains ran late on Friday.Mughalsarai DRM Anup Kumar said the repair work will take at least 15 hours but the incessant rain might stretch it to 36 hours. A technical fault is believed to have caused the accident. No casualties have been reported yet.Sources said that about 9.20 pm on Thursday, the driver of the goods train heading for Aligarh from Dhanbad, felt a jerk near the east home signal of Durgawati railway station about 50 km from Rohtas district headquarters Sasaram, when the train, at the speed of 70 km per hour, was passing through reversible Up line.Out of a total 46 coaches, 26 derailed. On hearing of the derailment, the villagers rushed to the site. Soon after the incident, movement of trains was stopped on the section. An accident relief train and cranes took about five hours to reach the site, hardly 45 km from Mughalsarai. Sources said the ECR GM and DRM reached the spot about 7 am on Friday along with other officials. The DRM said 350 labourers were engaged in debris removal work.

ECR general manager Varun Bharthuar, who is still camping at the site to supervise the track restoration work, said high powered cranes are being used to lift the derailed wagons. Meanwhile, the railways has opened helpline centres at Gaya, Mughalsarai and Dhanbad stationsfor convenience of passengers. About 500 reserved tickets were cancelled at half-a-dozen stations of the section on Friday incurring huge loss for the railways.

The trains that were cancelled Friday included Delhi-Howrah Janata Express (up and down), Lal Quila Express (Kolkata-New Delhi), Udayan Abha Toofan Express (Howrah-New Delhi) and Mahabodhi Express (Gaya-New Delhi).

As the incoming trains arrived late, at least three Rajdhanis - Bhubaneswar, Sealdah and Howrah - left New Delhi station four to five hours behind schedule. They have been diverted either through Mughalsarai-Jhajja section or Barakana-Chopan-Chunar route. While the Sealdah Duranto and Puri Express were rerouted through Gomoh and Chopan instead of the Mughalsarai-Patna route.

The route of Shipra Express has been diverted for the day and it will travel via Chopan, Singrauli and Katni. This train, officials said, would miss its stop at Allahabad station owing to the diversion.

Orissa Sampark Kranti - an important train plying between New Delhi and Bhubaneswar - has been diverted via Manikpur-Katni, while Neelanchal Express, another train connecting New Delhi with Puri in Odisha, has been diverted via Mughalsarai and Patna.

Passengers at the New Delhi railway station said they were not informed about the late arrivals. "I am travelling with my family including a child. Look at the lack of cleanliness here as we wait for another round of announcements from the railways. This has been one nightmarefrom 4 pm,'' said Kaushik Sen, waiting for the Sealdah Rajdhani. The train was to leave at 5 pm but was rescheduled for 10 pm. Passengers arriving late claimed there was severe water and food shortage at smaller stations between Gaya and Kanpur. ``We bought water for Rs 30 a litre from local vendors as railways arranged for these provisions only at the bigger stations,'' said Utkarsh Sharma who arrived in the Swarn Jayanti Express.

Northern Railway officials, however, claimed that adequate arrangements have been made to provide tea, water and refreshments to the passengersof trains regulated at Varanasi, Kashi and Vyas Nagar stations of Lucknow Division. Northern Railway has opened several helpline numbers to assist passengers at stations.

Helpline numbers are operational at Old Delhi station (011-23962389, 011-23962332), New Delhi (011-23341074, 011-23342954), Varanasi (0542-2504658) and Lucknow (0522-2635844, 09794830973, 09794830975).