An unauthorised shop near the railway level crossing at Saheed Nagar in Bhubaneswar. Picture by Ashwinee Pati

Bhubaneswar, Dec. 20: The Railway Protection Force have launched a drive to remove unauthorised garages, shops and establishments on either side of the railway track near Bhubaneswar railway station, as these structures are posing a security threat to movement of trains.

Making a beginning, the Railway Protection Force (RPF) booked around 35 people last night and today from nearby areas for indulging in illegal activities inside the railway station and produced them before the railway camp court in Kharavela Nagar.

Illegal structures such as garages, shops, eateries and scrap deposition points have been set up on either side of the railway track from Mancheswar to Lingaraj station.

Inspector in charge, RPF, Varun Behera said an illegal garage had been set up between the railway track and the railway signal junction near Satya Nagar overbridge. The garage stood over almost 90 per cent of railway land and many unused and damaged vehicles had been piled up there obstructing the signal’s visibility. The piled up vehicles can come onto the railway track any moment, because of vibration and other factors.

The garage hid the signal box from view, so that guards and train pilots could not see the signals clearly. It could have caused serious security problems.

“We had given a warning to the garage owner and people working there to remove these vehicles and shift operations from there, but they did not listen to us. We gave them another reminder on Tuesday, but they still did not pay heed. Following this, we booked 32 people working in that garage,” said Behera.

The RPF’s move sparked tension at the railway station, as some local truck association members opposed it alleging that the security forces had detained three of their members who had come to the garage to take their trucks.

Santosh Sethi, a resident of an apartment nearby, said many small shops and illegal garages and scrap dealing points have been mushrooming near the railway station. Most of these scrap iron pieces and parts of vehicles and other materials are dumped near the tracks. “This poses the threat of these piled up materials coming on to the tracks, which would hamper train service. They pollute the nearby area,” said Sethi, an engineer.

The police said these temporary structures gave rise to slums coming up along the railway line. Many accidents occur near these points, as people cross the railway tracks here dangerously. Criminals settle in these areas and target the trains and passengers. Sometimes they steal iron plates and scrap material from the railway premises.

“We have planned to crack down on these illegal structures and have already started by taking action against some of them. We hope others will be careful and remove such illegal structures from near the railway track or else we will have to take stringent action against them. We don’t want any untoward incident to take place because of these illegal structures,” said the inspector.