Rail traffic on Chennai-Howrah route restored

VIJAYAWADA: Rail traffic has been restored on the Chennai-Howrah Golden Quadrilateral trunk route within seven hours after it was affected following derailment of a goods train wagon at the Rajamahendravaram railway yard in the early hours of Wednesday, a railway official said.

The derailment happened closer to the Rajamahendravaram railway station on the down main line, leaving only one line open on the busy Chennai-Howrah route that sees movement of hundreds of trains.

The new modified goods wagon was carrying a consignment of cars to Kiddorepore Docks in Kolkata.

''With coordinated efforts, the re-railment of the track was completed in a swift manner in seven hours and the train traffic has been restored,” South Central Railway Vijayawada division Public Relations Officer Nusrat M Madrupkar said.

A special 140-tonne crane from Vijayawada was mobilised to carryout the re-railment and clear the track, she said.

The South Central Railway cancelled nine important trains on the Vijayawada-Visakhapatnam section for the day.

While three more trains were cancelled partially between different stations, another was rescheduled by two hours, according to Nusrat.

Cause of the accident was not immediately established, even as a team of officials from Vijayawada rushed to the spot to carry out restoration works, official sources said.