Railway track repair work along the New Farakka line in West Bengal's Murshidabad district was completed on Saturday morning, followed immediately by official trial runs. Train movement on this strategic line connecting South Bengal with North Bengal had been severely disrupted over the past few days following a major landslide.
Landslide and Continuous Rain Cause Severe Disruption
The service outage was triggered by a landslide that severely damaged the tracks along the New Farakka section. Emergency repair operations were initiated by railway authorities on Thursday, but persistent rainfall severely hampered restoration efforts. The soil around the affected zone remained unstable and waterlogged, posing significant challenges to engineers and ground staff.
Weather conditions finally improved late Friday night after the rain stopped, enabling repair teams to accelerate their work through the night and finish track restoration by Saturday morning.
Normal Operations Expected by Saturday Evening
Following the completion of track repairs, railway engineering teams successfully conducted trial runs on Saturday morning. Officials confirmed that full commercial train services on the route are expected to resume by Saturday evening once all safety checks are verified. The progress brings significant relief to thousands of commuters whose travel plans between North and South Bengal were thrown into disarray over recent days.
During the disruption, multiple train services linking South Bengal to North Bengal were cancelled, while several others had to be diverted via alternative routes. Railway officials emphasized that normal train scheduling would only be restored after total safety verification and successful trial movements on the re-laid tracks.
Ground Crew Celebrates Success as High Bus Fares Ease
Railway personnel and engineers who worked around the clock in challenging conditions expressed immense satisfaction after completing the trial run. Workers on site celebrated the milestone on Saturday morning by raising slogans of 'Bharat Mata ki Jai'.
The train disruption had also triggered an acute surge in demand for private road transport. Private bus operators running services between Kolkata and Siliguri capitalized on the crisis, hiking ticket prices from the standard rate of around 1,500 rupees to steep fares ranging between 5,000 and 6,000 rupees in recent days. With the restoration of rail tracks, passengers are expected to get relief from these inflated transport costs.
