Railway personnel detected dismantled fishplates on the tracks and averted a major train accident near Jhajha in Bihar during the early hours on Tuesday. They immediately stopped traffic on the section.
The 13185 Sealdah to Jaynagar Gangasagar Express was scheduled to cross the site and was halted for around 45 minutes. It resumed its journey after the tracks
were repaired.
This is the third such incident in the area this month. Fishplates are metal plates used to fasten or join the ends of two rails to make a continuous track. They are put in place with the help of nuts and bolts.
A patrolling team of railway personnel, while checking the tracks between Lahaban and Telwa Bazar Halt at around 1am on Tuesday, found that one fishplate was completely removed from the rails. Another fishplate was turned loose with nuts and bolts unscrewed.
The movement of trains was immediately stopped and an assistant engineer Pintu Das rushed to the spot to check and supervise repairs.
“How the fishplates got dismantled is not clear. We are probing it. We have also increased night patrolling on this rail section. The alert railway personnel who detected the dismantled fishplates would be awarded. We have also informed the Railway Protection Force (RPF) about the incident,” Das told reporters.
Senior railway officials said that fishplates cannot get completely removed or dismantled on their own and the incident reeked of sabotage.