Suspension of night trains in Maoist areas to continue

Suspension of night running of trains in Kharagpur division of South Eastern Railway after the Gyaneshwari train accident on May 28 is likely to continue till the railways are confident of security, a senior railway official today said."Once we are confident enough, we will immediately start running of trains during night hours," railway board chairman Vivek Sahai said.Running of trains at night was suspended in the division immediately after the May 28 mishap in which the hands ofMaoists are suspected. As many 150 people died in the mishap.Sahai said the railways were doing regular assessment of the prevailing situation in the area in the wake of the train accident near Jhargram in West Midnapore district of West Bengal and are being provided with intelligence inputs on a daily basis.Railways had yesterday decided to extend for another four days suspension of night operations between Kharagpur and Tatanagar and Kharagpur and Adra. The suspension of trainmovement from 10 pm to 5 am was initially meant to end todaymorning.

However, Sahai made it clear that the suspension was not applicable to goods trains and that they were plying normallyon those routes.Services between Kharagpur and Tatanagar were suspended ataround 7.30 am today after a goods train driver raised an alarm that he had heard an explosion like sound, which the railways later ruled out after conducting a spot investigation.On June 9, services between Kharagpur and Tatanagar wereonce again suspended after the Jhargram GRP alertedauthorities about a possible attack by the Maoists on theMumbai-Howrah Duranto express.

Both South Eastern as well as East Coast Railway have already either rescheduled or diverted several trains in view of the suspensions on night operations.