New Rly zone gets spate of FIRs over cracked tracks

One month after Nitish Kumar bludgeoned through the East Central Railway Zone — ignoring advice against creation of new zones from expe...

One month after Nitish Kumar bludgeoned through the East Central Railway Zone — ignoring advice against creation of new zones from experts and forcing Mamata Banerjee out of the NDA Government — his Railway Ministry seems to have abandoned it. In 30 days of its existence, the zone has picked up four FIRs for faulty maintenance of tracks.

The Government Railway Police (GRP) has filed a series of FIRs against railway employees for failing to maintain tracks, with at least one lodged in the Aurangabad district, where the Howrah Rajdhani derailment took place on September 10.

However, according to East Central Railway (ECR) officials, these FIRs are part of a ploy by the state to harangue railway employees. ‘‘This (filing of FIRs) is not normal procedure. Rail fractures takes place every day. If railway men are harassed in this manner, they may resort to some strike action,’’ says ECR General Manager’s Secretary A.K. Chandra.

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He also charges that since the CRS report on the Rajdhani derailment had blamed the accident on sabotage and not railway negligence as the GRP and Bihar government had been claiming, the latter were retaliating thus.

But figures tell their own tale. In the past two weeks alone, four derailments have been averted after broken fishplates were detected or cracks noticed in railway tracks. And all the four averted derailments were in the Gaya and Aurangabad districts.

The latest FIR was lodged on October 26 after the Jodhpur Express — going from Howrah to Jodhpur — had a narrow escape when cracks were noticed in the tracks over which it was to pass. This is the same line on which the Howrah Rajdhani runs. The GRP filed an FIR against railway staff, accusing them of ‘‘negligence and omission of duty’’. Just two days before that, another FIR had been filed against the Railways in the Sone Nagar rail police station after a carriage and wagon train had to be stopped when cracks were noticed in the tracks.

According to the third FIR, on October 21 near Komanpur railway line between Mainpur and Gaya, a pair of fishplates, on both sides of the rail, had been found broken. A patrolling Railway Protection Force group had noticed the broken fishplates. This track is also on the Grand Chord route and a Rajdhani was slated to pass over it. The GRP in the FIR booked against two railway staff say that when they asked for the fishplates to investigate the matter, they were told these had already been sent to Mughalsarai.

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In the same week, another empty passenger coach and wagon had derailed on the same line near Gaya.

Chabdra claims the Gaya-Mainpur line in that particular portion is 25 years’ old and in the process of being replaced: ‘‘One person inspects every railway track every 24 hours. We are changing many of the old tracks.”

The tracks have been sent to the chief metallurgical testing lab and Chandra adds that once the report comes out, they would be able to establish the reason for the fractures.