Kolkata, Sep 24: Six wagons of an empty goods train derailed near New Maynaguri station in West Bengal’s Alipurduar district on Tuesday morning. No casualties were reported during the incident.
After the derailment, no disruption in railway services was reported. While the restoration work was on, the trains, which were supposed to move by the same lines, have been diverted to alternate routes.
As the speed of the goods train was too slow when the incident occurred, it had no major impact, said eye-witnesses. Two electrical posts and the water pipeline at the station were smashed after being hit by the derailed wagons. On receiving information, senior railway officials immediately rushed to the spot.
Railways sources said that the cause of the derailment was yet to be ascertained and a thorough investigation into the matter has already started. On June 17, at least 11 persons were killed following a collision between the Kanchenjunga Express and a goods train near Rangapani station in Darjeeling district.
The goods train collided with the Kanchenjunga Express from the backside. Fortunately, the number of casualties was not that high essentially because the last two coaches of Kanchenjunga Express- were the parcel coach and the guard’s compartment.
Initial investigation revealed that the goods train exceeded the restricted speed limit of 15 kilometres an hour while covering the distance between Rangapani and Chatter Hat with paper line clear tickets (PLCTs) as the automatic signalling system within that distance was non-functional. Because of the speed overshooting, the goods train hit Kanchanjunga Express from behind.
PLCT is a paper authorisation issued to a train to ignore red signals within a distance where the automatic signalling system is malfunctioning. However, such PLCT comes with a restricted speed limit of 15 kilometres an hour within that distance where the automatic signalling is non-functional. Again on July 31, two wagons of a goods train got derailed at the same spot in the Darjeeling district.
IANS