Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, Apr 29: A possible tragedy was averted in the early hours today with the prompt response of the Northern Railways staff at Tanda Urmur Railway Station, ensuring the safety of passengers on board Jammu bound Hemkunt Express train.
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A Railways spokesman said that the timely action of the Railways staff also prevented significant delay in the trains operations on Jammu-Pathankote-Jalandhar rail route.
The spokesman said that as per SHO, Govt Railway Police (GRP), Jalandhar, Inspector Ashok Kumar, at around 1:30 am, the Hemkunt Express, en- route from Haridwar to Jammu was forced to halt on the outskirts of Tanda Urmur station near Chandigarh Colony due to the signal not turning green on the Jalandhar-Jammu rail route.
The unexpected stop raised railway safety concerns and indicating possible disruption.
Upon noticing that the track points had not changed, the Station Master at Tanda Urmur immediately dispatched pointsman with support staff to inspect the situation.
The pointsman discovered that the track had been blocked with big stones, and a roughly three-inch-long piece of iron was also found placed on it, with the apparent motive to derail the train, carrying more than 1200 passengers, mostly hailing from the Jammu region.
While displaying swift presence of mind, the pointsman and support staff cleared the obstruction in shortest possible time, allowing the Hemkunt Express to resume its journey towards Pathankote and Jammu with hardly half an hour delay.
The senior security officials suspected big foul play and termed the act a deliberate attempt to cause disruption and tragedy.
The spokesman added that the Railway Protection Force (RPF) has initiated proceedings under the Railway Act. Both RPF and GRP have launched a joint investigation from all possible angles to ascertain the motive and identify the miscreants.
Action will be taken based on the outcome of the probe, the Railways official said.
IG Railways, Vivek Gupta when contacted said that the incident took place near Jalandhar and the area is not the part of his jurisdiction. He, however, said that with the timely action of the concerned Railway staff the possible mishap was averted. He said most of the passengers in this train often belong to Jammu, Samba and Kathua areas.
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