Jamshedpur, July 13: When rains do not cause trains to delay, technical snags do.

Commuters are learning this the hard way, and all too frequently.

The train service between the Tatanagar and Kharagpur section of South Eastern Railway (SER) was affected for several hours this afternoon due to disconnection of an overhead high-tension wire at Dhalbhumgarh railway station.

The technical snag affected the running of several mail, express and passenger trains.

The Sambalpur-Howrah Ispat Express scheduled to reach Ghatshila at 3.05pm was delayed by more than one-and-half hours.

Similarly, the Kharagpur-Tata passenger reached Tatanagar about an hour behind its schedule.

The delay did not affect ordinary commuters. It also affected ministers.

Deputy chief minister Sudhir Mahto had to wait for about half-an-hour at Ghatshila railway station before boarding the Ispat Express.

Mahto was in Ghatshila to take part at a function organised at the Ghatshila Copper Club.

This snag caused all trains running between Tatanagar and Howrah to be routed through a single line. All up and down trains between Kharagpur-Tata had to run through the single line.

Railway officials said that engineers were pressed into service to rectify the fault. normal train service could be restored late in the evening, they added.

Railway officials said the the high-tension overhead wires get disconnected due to heavy rains. The region witnessed heavy rainfall during the last two weeks.

This was the second such incident in the past fortnight. Earlier on July 2, a similar problem occurred between Jhargram and Ghatshila railway stations, disrupting train service for over six hours.

A section of passengers at Ghatshila railway station got agitated and ransacked the station manager’s office.