The railway services between Kotdwar in Pauri district of Uttarakhand and Najibabad in neighbouring Uttar Pradesh were resumed on Tuesday night after remaining suspended due to the collapse of a railway bridge nearly eight months ago. The railway bridge spanning the Sukhro river in Kotdwar had been washed away in flood following heavy rainfall in the previous monsoon season. After the completion of the construction of the railway bridge across the Sukhro river, a trial was conducted using a locomotive engine which was cleared successfully after which the train service between Kotdwar and Najibabad was resumed in the presence of Moradabad divisional rail manager Pramod Kumar and the senior region engineer Paritosh Gautam. The DRM Pramod Kumar waved a green flag to the Kotdwar-Najibabad passenger train to resume the suspended railway service. The begining of the rail service between Kotdwar and Najibabad comes as a major relief to the railway passengers of the Garhwal and other regions, although the Garhwal express, Mussoorie express and Doon express bogey services, which were linked to these trains will start after a few days. These rail services will be commenced after the clearance of the proposal from headquarter, said officials.
The DRM Moradabad said that the proposal of start these trains had been sent to the headquarters in Delhi and on getting the green signal, these services will start. Kumar said that the booking of these trains is being conducted, but it will take some time, while expressing hope that the green signal to run these trains will be received within a duration of four days. He further informed that the cost of the newly constructed railway bridge is about Rs five crore with its foundations being stronger that the bridge which had collapsed in the past. The passenger train between Najibabad and Kotdwar has started and this train will run from Najibabad to Kotdwar and return six times a day.
It is pertinent to mention that the pillar of the Sukhro railway bridge had collapsed on July 23 following a flood. The rail services were paralysed since then and remained closed for the past eight months. The trial of the new constructed railway bridge was done by running a locomotive engine from Najibabad to Kotdwar on Tuesday forenoon before railway officers and the passenger train was flagged off by the DRM later in the night.