Balurghat/Malda, Sept. 12: A fire that broke out this morning in the engine of the link train of Malda-Balurghat Gour Express forced most of its passengers to get down midway and travel by road.

According to the passengers, the driver of the train brought the engine to a halt at Deotala station at 8.20am, 20 minutes after it left Gajole.

“Thick black smoke was billowing out of the engine when we got off responding to the RPF guards’ shouts to evacuate the train. We were panicking but could not see the flames,” said Parimal Sarkar, a trader from Balurghat returning from Calcutta.

The driver was prompted by an alarm in the diesel locomotive. “His promptness brought the engine to a halt immediately and stopped the fire from spreading,” Sarkar claimed.

When the train’s guard used his walkie-talkie to contact Malda for a fresh engine, there was resentment among the passengers. The engine arrived at Deotala at noon. It towed the train back to Gajole station 12km away so that the engine could be attached to the front end of the train. Deotala did not have a double line to carry out this operation. Most of the passengers got off at Gajole and took buses to return to Balurghat.

“The absence of double line and a signalling system are real problems for passengers. We have been demanding this ever since the line was opened in December, 2004,” one of the passengers said.

The train, which was scheduled to reach Balurghat at 10am, finally made it at 2.30pm. According to RPF sources, there were over 800 passengers on board but only 150 reached Balurghat.