SUBHASH MISHRA
Dhanbad, Feb 9: Six racks of a coal-loaded goods train caught fire between Dhanbad- Nimiaghat stations on the grand chord line under Dhanbad railway division of East Central Railway (ECR) Hajipur zone on Wednesday morning.
Officials said that after getting information about the fire in racks, the train was stopped at Parasnath railway station, and rescue teams of railway and Giridih fire department controlled it after several hours of operation.
Following the fire, the railway disconnected the power supply in the up line of overhead wire for precaution, resulting in the stoppage of several trains at different railway stations of the Gomoh – Gaya section.
Railway officials said that the incident was traced at 6.20 am on Wednesday. Coal loaded goods train was going to Haryana from Dhanbad. When a goods train was crossing Nimiaghat railway station, a railway staff noticed a fire in the racks and immediately informed the next railway station Parasnath station about it.
The goods train was stopped at platform no. 4 of Parasnath railway station where railway and Giridih district fire fighting teams were deployed to control the fire. Railway sources said the fire had broken out in racks no. 20,21,37, 40 and 42.
“Once the fire is controlled, the up line would be opened for train movement,” said a railway officer.
As ECR Hajipur zone general manager Anupam Sharma is today on inspection of Koderma- Ranchi rail track and Dhanbad rail division manager Ashish Bansal and other senior officials are accompanying him (ECR GM), other senior officials at divisional headquarters refused to say when the train movement will start.
This is the second time in three days the movement of trains on the grand chord line was affected due to the incident. On February 7, when the Election Special Train returned from Hapur of Haryana after dropping security personnel, it derailed at Paharpur railway station under Dhanbad –Gaya rail section.
