Astonished over the decision of the ministry of Railways to cancel 18 trains passing through Dhanbad-Chandrapura Section, former Chief Minister Hemant Soren has requested the Centre to rethink on the issue and ensure all the trains are reinstated on the same route.
Eighteen express, mail and passenger trains will become a history as traffic on 35 km stretch of Dhanbad-Chandrapura section due to underground fire of Jharia coalfields has been closed by the Ministry of Rail from June 15 midnight.
The decision was taken following an advisory was received from the Ministry of Coal in view of passengers’ safety.
“The fire has not broken up today or yesterday; if it is there for more than 100 years, then why no alternate arrangement was made by the Government before closing the section,” asked Soren.
“The ‘diktat’ issued by the Government all of a sudden was not justified and the Government must have thought about the repercussions before closing it,” he added.
Soren further said that even though Jharkhand provides maximum revenue to Railways, people here were not given basic minimum facilities and Rajdhani still runs only twice a week.
“Whatever small facilities we have are also being taken away by the Centre,” Soren said. “On the one hand they are planning to bring seaports in the State and, on the other hand, they are trying to snatch away the most convenient means of transport of the poor in this state.”
“The Government has been moving ahead with business point of view for which the Centre is more responsible than the State Government,” said the former Chief Minister. JMM Chief Shibu Soren will soon write a letter to the Union Minister of Rail in this regard, he added.
Secretary of Chotanagpur Passenger’s Association has also demanded from the DRM to reinstate the trains running on Dhanbad-Chandrapura route.
Meanwhile, Ranchi DRM Santosh Agrawal said that the Union Rail Ministry, on the request made by Ranchi Division, has decided to continue Vananchal Express making slight changes in its route. The DRM said that the train will reach Bhagalpur via Asansol, Joychandi Pahar, Bhojudih, Bokaro Steel City.
“Our first priority is to ensure that people do not have to face problem in cancelling their confirmed tickets who are being informed through sending SMSs on their mobile phones and through advertisements on print and electronic media,” said the DRM. Special counters at Ranchi, Hatia and Muri have been opened for refunds as per rules and efforts are being made to minimize passengers’ inconvenience, he added.
The DRM said that it was also being ensured that people do not have to return from stations due to lack of information.
When asked about any alternate route plan to re-run the cancelled trains, the DRM said that it would be too early to say anything in this regard as it takes time to plan such things.
“We will think about it after tomorrow, once the route is closed down,” said the DRM.
RITES, an engineering consultancy company, specialized in the field of transport infrastructure has recommended to divert the tracks and related works on a parallel line via Dhanbad-Kusunda-Matari-Telo- Chandrapura.
More than 1.25 core passengers will be affected bringing a loss of Rs 1500 crore of revenue due to closure of this route. Special arrangement of buses on Dhanbad –Chandrapura and Phusro-Dhanbad are being made by the District administration so that people do not have to face problems in commuting from one place to another.