The blockade at Subhasganj and Uday Chandra Dey after he was released from hospital. Pictures by Nantu Dey

Raiganj, Sept. 13: An alert guard today flagged down a speeding passenger train to a halt, running on the tracks with a red flag and jumping off it in the nick to time when the lock at a level crossing failed to work.

Had it not been Uday Chandra Dey’s promptness, those crossing the tracks at Subhasganj around 10.30am could have been in the face of grave danger, especially with the Radhikapur-Katihar passenger train picking up speed after leaving Raiganj station. At one point of time, around 700-800 people use the manned level crossing at Subhasganj, 2.5km from the station, as it is a busy market area.

Train services on the Radhikapur-Katihar section of the Northeast Frontier Railway were held up for three hours from 11am when a mob blocked the tracks to protest against the alleged negligence of the station staff at Raiganj, which controls the locks of three level crossings. Subhasganj is the second crossing towards Katihar. The first level crossing is in Raiganj town itself and is 100 metres from the station. The third crossing is in the direction of Radhikapur.

At 10.30, Dey noticed that the Raiganj station had given the green light for the passenger train to pass, but the lock to lower the gate had not been released by the station staff. Usually, the guard inserts a key, which helps move a wheel that lets down the gate. Today, since the lock had not been released, the key would not go in.

“I tried to contact the Raiganj station as unless they unlocked the gate, the level crossing could not be closed. I first shouted at the people walking across the tracks that a train was approaching. With the bustle all around, nobody heard me. It was then that I ran towards the station’s direction with my red flag. I saw the train coming and when it did not stop, I jumped off the tracks at the last moment,” Dey said.

The locomotive driver realised that something was amiss when he saw somebody running towards the train with a red flag. But it took him sometime to bring the train to a halt, which he did after crossing the gate. By then the mob, who thought the gateman had been run over, had blocked the train.

“There were yells of alarm and when I saw the gateman lying on the edge of the tracks I thought that he had been killed. The people ran towards him and others blocked the tracks in front of the engine. But we were relieved to see that he was alive though he had cuts and bruises on his head and arms,” said Netai Saha, the owner of a fruit stall near the level crossing. Dey was taken to Raiganj District Hospital and he was released after first aid.

The blockade on the tracks was lifted at 2pm after the inspector-in-charge of the Raiganj police station, Sujit Ghosh, and local panchayat members visited the site. Station manager Manojit Datta apologised to the crowd for the incident.

“The lever that we have controls the two locks. We don’t know why the one in town functioned while this one did not. What happened today should not happen again. I am sending a report to my higher-ups,” Datta said.

Four pairs of trains pass through Subhasganj everyday.