Train movement normalises around 30 hours after Gazipur collision
On Friday, a Dhaka-bound passenger train collided head-on with an oil tanker train near the outer signal of the Joydebpur Railway Station
The repair of the damaged railway line has been completed, and train movement returned to normal around 30 hours after two trains collided in Gazipur on Friday morning.
"The disruption to the train schedule will now end," Sub-Inspector of Joydebpur Railway Police Outpost Setafur Rahman told a vernacular daily around 6:30pm Saturday.
Regarding the delay in the rescue operation, he said, "There was an oil wagon here. Because of this, the rescue work had to be done very carefully."
Keep updated, follow The Business Standard's Google news channel
The collision at Joydebpur disrupted the schedule of all trains running between Dhaka and the northern regions, resulting in delays for at least eight trains and causing suffering to passengers, according to officials.
Md Masud Sarwar, manager of Kamalapur Railway Station, told reporters that no train journeys were suspended; only the trains that got stuck were running late by two to three hours.
He stated that around eight trains had been delayed as of 4pm.
On Friday, a Dhaka-bound passenger train collided head-on with an oil tanker train near the outer signal of Joydebpur Railway Station around 11am.
Mohammad Hanif Mia, the station master of Joydebpur Railway Station, told The Business Standard Saturday afternoon that services on one line started two hours after the accident, but train operations were yet to return to normal. Trains were being run on a rationing system as only one line was operational.
He mentioned that authorities were allowing only a single train to use the line at a time while keeping the rest waiting in the Dhirasram and Joydebpur stations. As a result, the schedule of trains was disrupted.
Meanwhile, hundreds of passengers from different districts were waiting for trains for hours on Saturday. Several passengers mentioned that they were facing a lot of trouble in this scorching heatwave.
Ashraful, a passenger on the Jamalpur-bound Teesta Express, told TBS that he was also waiting at the station to go to his village. The train was scheduled to leave Joydebpur Junction at 7:30am, but it had not arrived at the station even by noon.
Five carriages, including the engine of the Tangail commuter train, and three carriages of the oil tanker train derailed in Friday's accident.
Meanwhile, the probe committee formed by the district administration over the incident has started its investigation.
On Saturday noon, the committee, led by Additional District Magistrate Md Matiur Rahman, visited the Joydevpur Railway Junction and Shaheed Tajuddin Ahmad Medical College Hospital to gather statements from railway employees.
