Around 50 train services were affected following the derailment of Burdwan-Bandel EMU local while entering Shaktigarh station at 9.16 pm yesterday.
According to the Eastern Railway, 20 trains, including Sealdah Intercity Express, Shantiniketan Express, Coalfield Express, Agnibina Express, Viswabharati Fast Passenger Special, Maa Tara Express, Sealdah-Godda MEMU Special, Burdwan-Sealdah local were cancelled today following the derailment. In addition, 24 trains had to be diverted while six had to be rescheduled because of the incident.
The derailment, as learnt from sources, took place after the loco pilot of down Burdwan-Bandel EMU local allegedly passed or violated the signal at danger level while entering Shaktigarh station at 9.16 pm yesterday. As a result, the local train collided sideways with a goods train and was derailed. Two bogies of the train are said to have received considerable damage.
Even the tracks up to a stretch of about 80 metres were damaged under the impact of the derailment, sources said. The zonal railway kicked off the repairing works on a war footing and around 30 meters of the stretch was repaired in a few hours.
However, as the remaining 50 metres needed to be repaired and the entire stretch required to be checked thoroughly, it took some time to lift one of the bogies lying on the tracks. The bogies after being brought back on track were taken to the yard.
According to sources, a committee has been formed by the Eastern Railway that will investigate the reason for the occurrence of ‘Signal Passed at Danger’ and other aspects of the incident.
As informed by sources, even though an official termination is to be decided upon, the loco pilot of the train is not to take up driving till the probe is on and has to face the investigation.
Notably, in November last year, passengers of SealdahRanaghat local had a close shave after two local trains collided sideways near Sealdah car shed resulting in derailment of two wheels of one of the rakes. The driver of the local train had to lose his job following the incident.