Seven trains have been cancelled till June 2 in the central industrial chord section under the Dhanbad rail division in Jharkhand following the train disaster in West Bengal which left over 100 dead.
With tracks yet to be cleared after the Maoists derailed the Howrah-Kurla Gyaneshwari Express in West Midnapore district, a number of long-distance trains in the Kharagpur-Tatanagar section were also being diverted on Saturday, railway sources said.
A senior railway official said the seven cancelled trains are Palamau Express, Barkakana-Patna Express, Gomo-Barwadih Passenger, Barwadhi-Gomo Passenger, Gomo-Dehri-on-Sone Passenger, Barkakana-Gomo Passenger and Gomo-Barkakana Passenger.
The division’s Public Relations Officer Amrendra Das said the authorities will also cut short the journey of Barkakana-Mughulsarai Passenger at Barwadih and Barwadih-Chunar passenger at Choupan for one week.
The steps were taken to avoid night journey in the Maoist pockets.
The Shalimar-LTT Express will leave at 1.30 pm on Sunday instead of 3 pm owing to restrictions on night running of trains in the Kharagpur-Rourkela sections for three days.
South Eastern Railway sources said the train will run on its normal schedule from Jharsuguda.
“This has been done due to restrictions on night running of the trains in view of the security threat in Kharagpur- Rourkela Section following the derailment of Gyaneswari Express,” they said.
According to sources, Howrah-Mumbai Geetanjali Express will leave Howrah as per schedule on Saturday and it will run on diverted route via Kharagpur-Midnapur-Adra-Chandil-Sini.
The Shalimar-LTT Express will leave Shalimar on schedule on Saturday and it will run via Kharagpur-Midnapur-Adra-Chandil-Sini instead of its normal route.
The Howrah-Hatia-Howrah Express will be diverted via Asansol-Dhanbad-Katrashgarh-Chandrapura-Bokaro Steel City-Muri from Saturday to June 2, while Howrah-Koraput Express will be diverted via Kharagpur-Bhadrak-Kapilas Road-Angul-Sambalpur from Sunday to June 2.
Mumbai Howrah Special, expected to reach Jharsuguda at 5 pm on Saturday will be diverted via Jharsuguda-Rourkela-Hatia-Muri-Bokaro Steel City-Chandrapura-Jamuniatand-Mohuda-Adra-Kharagpur, the sources said.
