Another Rafiganj averted, narrowly

Had the Teesta-Torsa Express been running at its normal speed last midnight, this nondescript hamlet in West Bengal would have turned into a...

Had the Teesta-Torsa Express been running at its normal speed last midnight, this nondescript hamlet in West Bengal would have turned into another Rafiganj, where barely a week ago the Howrah-Delhi Rajdhani Express met with an accident killing 116 people and injuring more than 200.

The Teesta-Torsa Express, that was bound for Sealdah, was just about to enter Mahipal Road station around midnight yesterday when six of its compartments derailed. However, the compartments did not fall on the ground. Fortunately, there were no casualties and none of the passengers received any injuries. Half an hour later, 30 of them were taken aboard Purushotam Express and sometime later, a relief train took the rest of the passengers to Sealdah.

‘‘The train was running at a speed of 15 km per hour as it was to stop at Mahipalpur at 11.40 last night. Had the train been running at its normal speed, there would have been a major disaster,’’ the Assistant Guard of the train, Siddicharan Paul, said. Maldah DRM Vijay Kumar Mangalik, under whose jurisdiction Mahipalpur falls, added: ‘‘We are conducting inquiries into the incident. It could have been serious had the train been running faster.’’

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Mangalik hinted that the condition of the tracks could have caused the derailment. ‘‘The condition of the sleepers is quite bad. I am not saying they are unfit for use. We had made arrangements to change the sleepers, but look what happened now,’’ he said.

Interestingly, the CPI(M) is conducting its own investigations into the matter. Rabi-ul Hasan, secretary of the party’s local committee, has been given this responsibility. ‘‘I am convinced that the derailment took place because of the bad condition of tracks,’’ Hasan said.