GUWAHATI: Northeast Frontier Railway (NFR) engineers and workers repaired and restored the damaged Up line at 5.00 am on Sunday morning after working through whole night amid rain at the accident site between Panbari and Digaru near here, where 22 wagons of an empty goods train had derailed on Saturday.
The derailment had damaged more than 500 metres of both Up and Down lines. However, with the restoration of Up line some trains stranded at different stations on both sides of the accident site resumed their journey. The first train to pass the accident site was 15602 New Delhi – Silchar Purbottar Sampark Kranti Express. Later 12504 Agartala – New Delhi Humsafar Express also passed through the section.
Works are undergoing despite several hindrances including location of the accident site and hundreds of workers have been working round the clock to restore the Down line by this evening. Various machines have been pressed into service to supplement efforts by the workers and engineers. It is expected that trains services will normalize by tomorrow morning.
It may be mentioned that several trains had to be halted at Guwahati, Rangiya and Lumding stations because of the accident affecting several thousands of passengers. At Lumding station alone, more than 2700 passengers were stranded.
The NF Railway authority has claimed to have taken several steps to ensure that the inconvenience caused to the passengers is mitigated. At Lumding adequate food for the stranded passengers was arranged on payment. At Rangiya and Guwahati, around 400 food packets and water was distributed free of cost for the needy passengers. Repeated announcements were made at all stations providing passengers information on trains probable movements and rescheduling and cancellation of trains. Commercial Inspectors were deputed at all stations to ensure that the passengers face minimum discomfort.
As the train services have faced cascading affect of the disruption, some trains have to be cancelled / short terminated / reschedules. As many as 14 trains have been cancelled as on date while seven other trains were either partially cancelled or short terminated.
The cancelled trains included: Dibrugarh-Guwahati Shatabdi Express of 27.08.18, 55616 Silchar – Guwahati Passenger of 26.08.18. and Agartala – Sealdah Kanchanjungha Express of 26.08.18.
Meanwhile, 12424 New Delhi – Dibrugarh Rajdhani Express arriving Guwahati on 25.08.18 was short terminated at Guwahati and originated from Guwahati at 02.45 P.M. on Sunday instead of Dibrugarh as 12423 Rajdhani Express for Delhi.