East Central Railway suspends traffic movements between Darbhanga and Samastipur

PATNA: The East Central Railway (ECR) has suspended train traffic movements on the Darbhanga – Samastipur section under Samastipur division from 7.05am on Friday after sudden rise in the flood water level at the Hayaghat rail bridge. The railways has taken this decision after flood waters nearly touched the Hayaghat bridge, said ECR chief public relations officer (CPRO) Rajesh Kumar .
The CPRO said though a few pairs of special passenger trains were running at present due to the lockdown situation, railways, however, was forced to suspend traffic movements as precautionary measures.Railways has kept relief materials in readiness at all vulnerable places particularly nearby major rail bridges located in Samatsipur division of the ECR , he said adding boulders, stone dust, rail sleepers, and relief girders have been placed at each vulnerable site by special wagon trains near the flood affected rail bridges so that these relief materials could be rushed to the site in any emergency or breach of the bridges .
According to sources, railways has already installed automatic water level gauges at different rail bridges in the flood prone Samastipur railway division of the ECR to get a fast signal about the flood water level crossing the danger mark. Hundreds of rail safety and engineering staff have been deployed at rail bridge sites in the division to keep a close watch on the bridge and track conditions, sources said adding these safety staff are well equipped with the modern communication system toinform railway emergency control room at Hajipur in case of any emergency .
The CPRO said railway emergency safety staff have been asked to keep in touch with railway disaster management system 24x7 and send SMS and updates about the flood water condition currently prevailing in and around bridges.
Meanwhile, railways has withdrawn stoppages of Danapur – Bengaluru special train (02296) at Krsihnarajapuram, Bengaluru East and Bengaluru Cantt stations from Friday on the request of Karnataka government. Thus this particular special train will run directly up to Bengaluru from Bengapet station, CPRO said.