Dhaka, Dec 29 – Three accidents in as many districts – Gaibandha, Sylhet and Cumilla on Sunday – led to the collapse of train schedules across Bangladesh and caused severe sufferings for thousands of passengers. In Gaibandha, 12 bogies of Dhaka-bound Lalmoni Express with hundreds of people on board were separated from its locomotive as their hook broke down near the Bheramara Bridge in Sadar Upazila at 11:50 am.
Unable to find any solution, the train continued to Gaibandha with four compartments attached to it, said Gaibandha Railway Station Master Biren Chandra.
In the evening, the locomotive returned to the spot while a salvage train from Lalmonirhat also went there at 7 pm and reattached the hooks. Train operations resumed around 7:30 pm, he said.
Meanwhile, Sylhet’s rail communications with the rest of the country were restored after five hours of suspension following the derailment of a freight train at Baramchal in Kulaura Upazila of Moulvibazar.
Zulhas Mahmud, the deputy assistant engineer of Kulaura Railway Station, said train communications resumed around 3 pm.
The freight train carrying fertiliser veered off the tracks near the outer signal of Baramchal Railway Station around 10 am, halting train services on Sylhet-Dhaka and Sylhet-Chattogram routes, said Station Master Ruman Ahmed.
The derailment also forced suspension of vehicular movement on Brahmanbazar-Fenchuganj road as the train blocked it, he said.
Two relief trains later salvaged the derailed compartments.
Meanwhile, trains on the Dhaka-Chattogram and Chattogram-Sylhet routes were halted after Dhaka-bound Dhaka Express derailed at Shasidal of Brahmanpara around 1:30 am.
Two salvage trains from Brahmanbaria pulled up the derailed compartments and around 8:30 am, said Liakat Ali Majumdar, Deputy Assistant Engineer of Cumilla Railway.
Train communications resumed around 9 am
, he said. – UNB
