The movement of trains on the Howrah-Mumbai route was affected for several hours on Monday as CPI-Maoist rebels who had called a Bharat Bandh against the policies of the Centre triggered a blast on the railway tracks between Lotapahar and Sonua railway stations, about 80 Kms from here.
The spot falls under Chakradharpur division of South Eastern Railways (SER) in West singhbhum district.
Though no casualties took place, the powerful blast damaged the railway tracks for about two meters. A major incident was averted, said railway sources.
Spokesperson of Chakradharpur railway division, Manish Pathak, said the blast took place at around 2.15 am and the information of the blast was received by the station manager of Sonua from the driver of a goods train.
Bid to detain train, driver over jumbo deaths Section 56 of the Wildlife Protection Act, 1972, allows forest department to seize the vehicle, in this case, the locomotive which caused the accident
In perhaps the first such instance in Jharkhand and Odisha, a forest division team from Rourkela sought to detain the driver and the goods train which had mowed down two elephants early on Thursday.
The goods train hit and killed the elephants near Mahipani level crossing close to Jeraikela railway station which falls under Bisra range of Rourkela forest division in Sundergarh district of Odisha around 1am.
The tracks pass through an elephant corridor where the incident happened.
Jamshedpur: The movement of 23 passenger trains was affected on the busy Howrah-Mumbai route on Wednesday due to a blockade at the Goilkera railway station in West Singhbhum. A local outfit called Nagrik Ekta Manch started the blockade at 8:30am and lifted it seven hours later at 3:30pm. The organisation is demanding stoppage of five long-distance express and superfast trains at Goilkera.
The protesters agreed to suspend their protest for a week following much persuasion by the officials of the Chakradharpur railway division.
“We have appealed to the leaders of the outfit to wait for a response from the railway board regarding the stoppage of trains,” the senior divisional commercial manager of Chakradharpur, Manish Pathak, said.
2 elephants run over by train in Odisha, railways and forest officials play blame game
Forest officials blamed the loco pilot and said that though railways was intimated about the movement of an elephant herd, the train was running at a high speed when it hit the elephants.
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BHUBANESWAR: two elephants were killed after being hit by a parcel van near Mahipani in Sundargarh district in the wee hours of Thursday.
Sources said the mishap took place at about 1.30 am when an elephant herd was crossing the railway tracks and the speeding train hit two female jumbos on the Down line between Bhalulata-Jaraikela under South Eastern Railway (SER) division.
Over 300 activists of Nagrik Ekta Manch on Wednesday staged a Rail Roko agitation at the Goelkera Railway Station of the Howrah-Mumbai main line, demanding the stoppage of mail and express trains there.
Men and women sat on the railway tracks and started their agitation from 8:45 am, disrupting train movement along the route.
Several senior railway officials of South Eastern Railway s Chakradharpur division including the senior divisional commercial manager Manish Pathak rushed to the spot.
Deployment of Railway Protection Force (RPF) and Government Railway Police (GRP) was also made in adequate numbers to prevent any untoward incident.
Leading the agitation, the president of the outfit, Laxman Malgandi said that Goelkera Railway Station assumes importance as several mail and express trains running in Howrah- Mumbai main trunk route passes through it.