Excelsior Correspondent
UDHAMPUR, Aug 9: For the fourth consecutive day, rail services between Jammu and Udhampur remained suspended as the track damaged due to heavy landslides at exit of tunnel number 16 near Darsoo could not be cleared so far.
Notwithstanding hectic round the clock efforts of the Railway Department, the garbage and boulders could not removed fully from the track.
According to DRM Railway Firozpur Division Naresh Chand Goel, the authorities are not in a position to give the exact date for resuming train traffic on the line as quantum of damage to the track was still not known. We can assess the damage to track only after accumulated mud and garbage due to landslides is removed, he explained.
As reported earlier, due to overnight rains, landslide took place on August 6 morning near the exit of tunnel number-16, minutes before the Malwa Express was scheduled to pass on the track for reaching Jammu and onward journey to Madhya Pradesh.
A Railway Keyman Arvind Pathak who was on routine track checking when the landslide took place, immediately fired signal bomb and waved red flag to the Malwa Expressing, which was approaching nearer. Even as driver of the train applied emergency brakes, engine of the Malwa Express rammed into the debris but a major accident was averted.
Even as the restoration work was immediately started for clearing the track, the train traffic on Jammu-Udhampur section is unlikely to get resumed in next two- three days.
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