Flood: Today’s train for north, south-west dists cancelled

All trains to northern and south-western parts of the country for today were cancelled as a railway bridge was partly damaged in Kalihati upazila of Tangail due to floodwater.

Director General of Bangladesh Railway Amjad Hossain told The Daily Star today.

The DG has expressed his hope that the train service will resume by tomorrow morning.

Full work force has been deployed but the repair is being been hampered due to strong current, said the DG, who has already left Dhaka for Tangail to visit the spot.

Around 20 feet area of the basement of Pungli river rail bridge partly collapsed due to an onrush of floodwater some time after Sundarban Express, a Dhaka-bound inter-city train from Khulna, crossed the bridge around 5:00am, reports our Tangail correspondent visiting the spot.

Meanwhile, a relief train from Joydebpur has already started the repair work while another train started from Pakshey of Pabna for Tangail to restore rail communication, said Bangladesh Railway West Zone Chief Engineer Ramjan Ali.

The repair work was going on under the supervision of Deputy Commissioner of Tangail Khan Mohammad Nurul Amin and Superintendent of Police Mahbubul Alam.

Talking to the correspondent, Railway Divisional General Manager (Pakshey zone) Washim Kumar Talukdar said he hoped that they would be able to restore the rail link by tomorrow morning temporally but it will take three days to resume full-fledged train service.

Executive engineer of Water Development Board (WDB) of Tangail office Shahjahan Siraj blamed flood and sand lifting from the Pungli River for the incident.

Meanwhile, the Dhaka bound-train ‘Nilsagar express’ coming from Nilphamari got stuck near the bridge following the damage of the railway bridge.

The driver stopped the train near the bridge after local people gave danger signal flying red flag early morning, said local people.

Following the railway bridge collapse, Dhaka-bound Rangpur Express got stuck at Bangabandhu Bridge East Railway Station while Dhaka-bound Ekota Express from Dinajpur at Bangabandhu Bridge West Railway Station and Rajshahi-bound Dhumketu Express from Dhaka at Joydebpur railway station, said Railway Divisional general manager (Pakshi zone) Washim Kumar Talukdar.