Islampur, Oct. 10: The station manager of Magurjan was suspended for negligence of duty on the basis of the preliminary findings of a team that is probing the incident of derailment of oil tankers at Bihar’s Chanabana last month.

On September 27, 19 oil tankers had jumped the tracks after the containers carrying diesel caught fire. One person had died in the blaze and a half-kilometre stretch of the track had melted in the fire near Islampur.

After the accident, the Northeast Frontier Railway authorities had initiated a departmental inquiry to be conducted by a four-member team led by senior chief engineer J.P. Singh.

Based on the initial findings of the team, station manager Kajal Roy’s suspension letter was issued on Saturday. NFR officials said Roy received the order today.

“He has been suspended for negligence of duty,” S. Hajong, the chief public relations officer of the NFR, said over the phone from Assam today.

According to the officials, the tankers had caught fire when the train was crossing Magurjan station.

“The station manager, despite noticing the flames between the bogies, did not consider it important to take necessary steps. If he had acted proactively, the mishap could have been avoided. Following this negligence, he has been suspended,” said an NFR official.

He added that Roy would be allowed to join work only after he is cleared.

This afternoon, a wheel of one of the damaged tankers was recovered from a pond, 200 metres from the spot of accident. Officials said the wheel would be sent to the divisional headquarters of the NFR at Katihar for further investigation.

“Our team had carried out several search operations to find the wheel. It was the first wheel that had jumped the tracks leading to the accident. We need to get it scrutinised by our engineers to know the exact cause of the derailment, whether the axle broke or anything else had happened,” an official said.

He said the team was also examining the possibilities of any mechanical fault on the tracks or whether the driver of the train had made any mistakes. The officials are also trying to find out how the containers caught fire and whether there was any sabotage that led to the accident.

Sources in the railways said it would take at least six months to repair a culvert near Chanabana that was damaged in the blaze. “Trains are crossing the affected area very slowly since the accident. We are also avoiding running two trains on both the tracks on the culvert at the same time,” said an official.