NF Railways most accident-prone

While the latest mishap at Gaisal goes down as India8217;s worst-ever accident, it was only in December 30, 1996, that Bodo militants had blasted the same Brahmaputra Mail near Kokrajhar, which had left about 40 persons dead.

Earlier in 1976, the NF Railway witnessed another major accident when a passenger train plunged into a river at Kanhikuchi in Assam, claiming about 100 lives.

Last month, it was the turn of suspected ISI agents to explode a powerful bomb at New Jalpaiguri, killing nine persons, mostly Kargil-bound soldiers, while similar explosions have taken place at Guwahati railway station at least five times in thepast 15 years.

Last May, the Brahmaputra Mail had derailed between Attabari and Dhupguri stations, also in Assam, while a month beore that the Kanchanjonga Express had met with an accident at Aluabari Road, the station next to Gaisal, which left four dead.

Nature has also always been playing havoc with the NF railway network in Assam, leading to a cumulative loss of about Rs 5 crore during the last two years alone.

The worst was in the Lumding-Badarpur hill section in Assam, when on June 4, 1998, massive landslides damaged several kilometres of the track and approaches to two bridges.

In 1995, when the flood-waters of the Teesta and Toorsa inundated large areas of North Bengal, also under NF railway, it was again the turn of the Brahmaputra Mail to be stranded for several days, with the floods washing away the railway tracks on either side. Railway authorities had to then airdrop food packets and even water pouches specially prepared for the hundreds of passengers.

The worst-affected portion of theNF railway8217;s 3,823-km network is in the Lakhimpur and Dhemaji districts of northern Assam, where tracks were either washed away or were buried under silt in several portions during the devastating floods in the state in 1998.

The railway network of the region was the prime target of the Naga insurgents in 50s and 60s with repeated attacks being made on passenger trains beween Lumding and Furkating during that period.

While the traffic in the New Jalpiguri-Katihar section has been restored last night after the Gaisal disaster, the worries of the railway authorities are far from over. August is rumoured to be the favourite month for most insurgent groups of the region to target the railway system, with the rebels concentrating on getting publicity around Independence Day.