Railway tracks at two places in Kalahandi submerged, train services affected

BHUBANESWAR: Railway tracks at two places between Rupra Road and Lanjigarh Road stations in Kalahandi district submerged due to heavy rainfall on Monday. Train services in the Rayagada-Titlagarh section have been stopped after flood water inundated the track.
The track near Rupra Road station and another track near Narla Road station were flooded due to heavy rain. The East Coast Railway (ECoR) sources said trains couldn’t be run in submerged tracks.“After receding of water from the tracks, ECoR will run trains after conducting necessary inspection,” said a senior railway officer.
Following this problem, six major trains were cancelled. These were Sambalpur-Nanded Express, Visakhapatnam-Korba Express Nanded-Sambalpur express, Korba-Visakhapatnam express, Puri-Rourkela passenger and Rourkela-Puri passenger.
ECoR diverted eight more trains in different routes and partially cancelled two trains for safety and security of passengers and trains. Some trains were also rescheduled in view of the track problem and washing away of a railway bridge between Theruvali and Singapur Road stations in Rayagada.
A technical team of Railways from Visakhapatnam, including divers, went to the spot where the old bridge collapsed on Sunday. They checked the fitness of the new bridge (down line) before running trains on it. The team found erosion of sand at the bottom of one of the pillars of the bridge. The Railway engineers tried their best to unload sufficient quantity of sand bags, boulders and ballast for strengthening of the pillar, ECoR sources said.
ECoR general manager Umesh Singh accompanied by zone’s principal chief engineer personally inspected the site. “Our staffs are working round the clock to restore the route and start train operation on the new (down line) bridge at the earliest by Tuesday, if weather helps us,” said an official statement from the ECoR.