Alert railway gangman averts possible disaster

NEW DELHI: An alert railway trackman prevented a major mishap on Saturday morning after a part of a railway track just before Sadar Bazar railway station got uplifted.
The fractured rail portion was noticed by Pushpendra around 7.45am, who immediately informed senior railway officials due to which operations were stopped towards platform number 2 of the railway station and temporary repair work was carried out.The trains coming towards the station were diverted to other platforms.
"The alertness of the trackman helped as operations on the particular track were immediately suspended. Temporary repairs were done by providing a fish plate with the traffic allowed once again after an hour," said a senior railway official.
Train operations thus resumed but trains were asked not to exceed the speed limit of 10 km/hr while going over the area of the track. Officials said permanent repair of the track will be carried out within the next 24 hours.
Officials added that the trackman is likely to be awarded for his alertness and all track officials have been asked to keep a close check on the tracks.
Delhi has seen a number of derailments recently where parts of the track which were damaged resulted in trains getting diverted from the tracks while approaching the station. On September 7, a passenger was injured as two coaches of the Ranchi Rajdhani derailed at Shivaji Bridge, a few hundred meters from the New Delhi railway station. Just two days later, the engine of Kashi-Vishwanath express also derailed at the New Delhi railway station.