Accident Averted
Trains escape date with disaster
Guwahati, Dec. 21: The Adivasi militant group responsible for the explosion that killed five Rajdhani Express passengers a week ago would have spilt more blood on the tracks on Thursday evening had a railway patrol team not spoiled its plans in the nick of time.
A routine inspection revealed that 10 girders and roller bearings were missing from a rail bridge over the Doyang in Golaghat district half an hour before the Mariani-Guwahati special passenger train was to pass by.
The patrol party immediately alerted the nearest railway offices -- the bridge is between Jamguri and Bhilgaon railway stations under Lumding division -- and all trains scheduled to ply on that route were either suspended or halted.
The Guwahati-bound Jan Shatabdi Express had crossed that portion of the track barely an hour earlier.
Police said the Adivasi National Liberation Army was most likely behind the sabotage attempt. The same group triggered the blast on the Dibrugarh-bound Rajdhani Express near Kating village, 280km east of Guwahati, on December 13. Kating is about 25 km from the Doyang rail bridge.
The public relations officer of Northeast Frontier Railway, Nipendra Bhattacharyya, said an accident would inevitably have occurred had any train crossed the bridge when the girders were missing. Technicians from Lumding repaired the damage and train services were restored on Friday morning.
As many as seven passenger trains and a few goods trains were scheduled to pass by during the course of the night. The Rajdhani Express Down and Up trains were stranded at Mariani and Dimapur. The Delhi-bound train left Guwahati only at 2pm on Friday.
The Howrah-bound Kamrup Express was stranded at Farkating station through the night, while the Dibrugarh-bound Kamrup Express stayed put at Sarupathar station. The Delhi-bound Brahmaputra Mail was halted at Simaluguri.
The missing parts of the bridge were detected by a team of railway workers from Jamguri station. Security checks were intensified in Upper Assam after the blast on the Rajdhani Express.
In an unrelated development, Tinsukia police arrested two members of the All Adivasi Students’ Association of Assam from Hukanpukhuri tea estate and seized a CD of the Beltola episode last month. Sanjoy Karmakar and Ajoy Chautal were allegedly planning to incite tea garden workers by circulating copies of the CD, depicting how a mob targeted their community that day.
Posted On: The Telegraph
Guwahati, Dec. 21: The Adivasi militant group responsible for the explosion that killed five Rajdhani Express passengers a week ago would have spilt more blood on the tracks on Thursday evening had a railway patrol team not spoiled its plans in the nick of time.
A routine inspection revealed that 10 girders and roller bearings were missing from a rail bridge over the Doyang in Golaghat district half an hour before the Mariani-Guwahati special passenger train was to pass by.
The patrol party immediately alerted the nearest railway offices -- the bridge is between Jamguri and Bhilgaon railway stations under Lumding division -- and all trains scheduled to ply on that route were either suspended or halted.
The Guwahati-bound Jan Shatabdi Express had crossed that portion of the track barely an hour earlier.
Police said the Adivasi National Liberation Army was most likely behind the sabotage attempt. The same group triggered the blast on the Dibrugarh-bound Rajdhani Express near Kating village, 280km east of Guwahati, on December 13. Kating is about 25 km from the Doyang rail bridge.
The public relations officer of Northeast Frontier Railway, Nipendra Bhattacharyya, said an accident would inevitably have occurred had any train crossed the bridge when the girders were missing. Technicians from Lumding repaired the damage and train services were restored on Friday morning.
As many as seven passenger trains and a few goods trains were scheduled to pass by during the course of the night. The Rajdhani Express Down and Up trains were stranded at Mariani and Dimapur. The Delhi-bound train left Guwahati only at 2pm on Friday.
The Howrah-bound Kamrup Express was stranded at Farkating station through the night, while the Dibrugarh-bound Kamrup Express stayed put at Sarupathar station. The Delhi-bound Brahmaputra Mail was halted at Simaluguri.
The missing parts of the bridge were detected by a team of railway workers from Jamguri station. Security checks were intensified in Upper Assam after the blast on the Rajdhani Express.
In an unrelated development, Tinsukia police arrested two members of the All Adivasi Students’ Association of Assam from Hukanpukhuri tea estate and seized a CD of the Beltola episode last month. Sanjoy Karmakar and Ajoy Chautal were allegedly planning to incite tea garden workers by circulating copies of the CD, depicting how a mob targeted their community that day.
Posted On: The Telegraph