The Circular Railway train that got stuck about a kilometre from BBD Bag station in Calcutta on Saturday. Picture by Sanat Kumar Sinha

Calcutta, Aug. 6: Heavy rain left hundreds of passengers stranded for over four hours this morning in a Circular Railway train stuck in 50cm of water amid fears of electrocution as railway and police officials quibbled over jurisdiction.

The spot is between Burrabazar and BBD Bag stations. Railway officials also blamed the flooding on high tide in the Hooghly.

The train from Barrackpore was about a kilometre from BBD Bag station when it got stuck around 10.40am with the tracks 10cm under water. “Within half an hour, the water level went up to 40cm and it was 50 by 11.30am,” said an Eastern Railway spokesperson. “This has never happened before.”

Usually, services are stopped if the water level on tracks is above 12cm, railway sources said.

Local people waded through the water and were the first to reach the train around 2.40pm. They used wooden planks to help the passengers out while some of the elderly were physically lifted and brought down. Personnel from the Railway Protection Force and the fire department joined the effort around 3pm.

Officials fumbled while trying to explain the delay in rescuing the passengers from a potentially dangerous situation barely 500 metres from Writers’ Buildings.

The railway officials, who were not sure about the jurisdiction, had called the local North Port police station seeking help around 11.40am. The police refused to budge, saying anything that happens on tracks came under the jurisdiction of the Government Railway Police. The Dum Dum GRP was informed around 11.50am.

RPF inspector-general S.C. Sahu confirmed receiving the alert around noon, but said it took time to mobilise forces from Sealdah and Howrah stations. “It took them some time to reach the spot and arrange for ladders and wooden planks needed for the rescue work,” he said.

A diesel engine from Calcutta station reached the spot but could not be taken close enough to the stranded train amid fears that it could also get stuck.

“No one responded to our distress calls to the railways, police or the fire department,” said Prabir Chatterjee, who works for a publishing house in Dalhousie. “The delay cost me my day’s salary,” added the Agarpara resident who gets paid on a daily basis.

Chatterjee was among some 200 office-goers who wondered why there were neither railway personnel nor policemen anywhere nearby for so long. “At first I thought it was a simple snag. But when the train did not move for an hour and there was water all around, I panicked. We were in that state for three more hours,” Anjana Sarkar, who boarded the train from Barrackpore, said after being helped out by a local resident.

Railway officials said the high tide in the Hooghly delayed pumping out water from the tracks. “Three pumps were pressed into action but the high tide prevented the water from being drained out into the river,” the Eastern Railway spokesperson said.

Circular railway services were stalled after 11am “because of heavy waterlogging” on the tracks. Services on the affected tracks could not be resumed today. They were under 38cm of water till late tonight.

Railway officials attributed the “sudden rise in the water level” on the tracks to a “flash tide” in the Hooghly, which runs a few metres from the tracks near BBD Bag station.

A Calcutta Municipal Corporation official blamed the railways. “The channels that drain water from the tracks into the river were choked. Because they are part of the tracks, it is the railways’ responsibility to have them cleaned,” he said.

“Saturday’s flooding had nothing to do with the high tide,” the official added. “Had it been high tide that resulted in the flooding, the tracks would have been inundated whenever it rains during high tide.”

The passengers were escorted to safety by 3.30pm. Around 4pm, another engine pulled the stranded train away.