Biswabrata Goswami
MIDNAPORE, 29 JULY: Incessant rains since Wednesday night led to the incident of a landslide beside Hatigola bridge near Kharagpur railway station forcing rail authorities to suspend, cancel, diversion and short termination of several trains on the Kharagpur-Howrah section today.
Though, the soil collapsed under the freight tracks, it has affected other adjacent tracks also. The railway authorities have kept close the train movements along the five tracks and allowed to run Up and Down line trains along the other lines.
The railway officials said several overhead power line poles have also been uprooted during the landslide. “Railways are working on clearing the mud beside the tracks and repair works are going on at full speed. It would take some days to run the trains along the lines again,” said a railway official.
According to locals, works for repairing a sub-way was going on near the Hatigola bridge since the past few days. Since last night, incessant rains lashed the area due to low pressure in the Bay of Bengal. Several parts of Kharagpur town have already been submerged due to overnight rains. It was seen that the soil under the freight tracks were moving away during the rains. The railway authorities were relieved as there was no freight train along the tracks when the landslide occurred.
Meanwhile, once again the poor drainage systems caused massive water logging inside several wards of Kharagpur municipality. Knee-filled water at Anandanagar health center caused severe inconvenience to patients as well their attendants. The flow of water in ward numbers 27 and 29 is so strong that it is difficult to ride a motorcycle in these areas. Locals alleged that the drainage systems have already been choked due to the way the flats are growing in the municipal area.
Due to low pressure, torrential rain has started lashing from last night in different places of West Midnapore district. A number of mud houses have collapsed in different parts of Midnapore town due to torrential rains. According to local residents, rain water has inundated many areas like Dharma, Nimtala and Poultry Pukurpar in Midnapore town. Many homes remained flooded this afternoon. Residents had to wade through knee-deep water which gushed into homes, leaving them marooned. The Midnapore municipality’s efforts to tackle the situation proved grossly inadequate.
Tags: #KharagpurRail #Landslide #IncessantRain #BayOfBengal
