Dhanbad: The railways on Saturday said it was very keen on providing train services to over 5 lakh residents of Katras who were facing difficulties following the closure of the Dhanbad-Chandrapura line in June last year.
On Saturday, the general manager of East Central Railway, Hajipur, Lalit Chandra Trivedi, and BCCL CMD Ajay Kumar Singh conducted an inspection of the closed 14-km coal fire-affected section to find out if services could be restored.
Addressing a news meet at the divisional railway manager's office here, Trivedi said, "We are considering various options like providing an alignment through Nichitpur halt which is less than 2km away from Katras."
The 2km Katras-Nichitpur link line, which is now used for goods train, could be opened for passenger trains after obtaining the mandatory sanction from the Commissioner of Railway Safety (CRS), he added.
Railways sources said they had prepared a plan to upgrade facilities at Nichitpur railway halt for the benefit of Katras-Nichitpur passengers.
Train services on the 34km Dhanbad-Chandrapura line were suspended from June 15 after the Railway Board, on the basis of a survey report submitted by Directorate General of Mines Safety, decided to halt goods and passenger traffic on the 123-year-old tracks that had been rendered unsafe by coal fire.
The report, received by Railway Board on June 8, had said safety of 14km tracks passing through Baseria, Sendra, Bansjora, Katras Chotidih, New Akashkinare, South Govindpur and Tetulia collieries could not be guaranteed. Fourteen stations, including Kusunda, Baseria, Bansjora, Sijua, Angarpathra, Katrasgarh, Tetulia, Sonardih, and Jamunia, are located between Dhanbad and Chandrapura.
More than 19 trains, including the 123-year-old Dhanbad-Chandrapura Muri Passenger, had had to be cancelled while five others were diverted following the closure of the railway line. Sixteen trains were later restored.
But the greatest difficulty is being faced by the residents of Katras and adjoining areas like Sonardih Bhatmurna Nawagarh, Baghmara, Angarpathra, Bansjora, Sijua and Jamuniatand who used to come to Katras on the Dhanbad-Chandrapura Muri passenger train which was withdrawn following the closure of the line.
"We conducted the inspection following an instruction from railway ministry to explore possibility of re-launching train services on the 14km fire-affected section. We have made certain observations which would be analysed by experts and a report would be submitted to the ministry later."
Trivedi said although an alternative route was suggested by RITES , it was not technically feasible.
"We are considering the option of handing over the fire affected section to BCCL for carrying out mining to extricate the fire-affected coal," said Trivedi.
