Alert railway employees foiled the bid of Maoist insurgents in violence-hit Bastar region on Sunday to derail a train by detecting the detached fish plate in time. Due to this, a major accident was averted on the Kirandul-Jagdalpur route of the East Coast Railway, top Government officials said.
According to police department sources, with a view to derail the train in the Kottavalasa-Kirandul (KK) line in Dantewada, which is used for iron ore transportation, the insurgents had detached fish plates of the rail track between Kamalur and Bhansi stations on Kirandul-Jagdalpur stretch. However, during the daily searching by the Relief Van, the detached fish plates were detected in time and thereby a major mishap was averted.
After timely detection of the damage, the track maintenance team was pressed into service and after getting the track repaired, traffic was regulated shortly. Notably, alarmed by the oft-repeated mischief of Maoists who spare no chances to disrupt the traffic on the highly profitable Kirandul-Jagdalpur section, the railways have made it necessary to conduct early morning search of the track and only after clearance of the Relief Van, trains are given green light on this section.