Jharia mine fire forces closure of Dhanbad-Chandrapura railway line

The Railways will stop the operation of goods and passenger traffic on Dhanbad-Chandrapura railway line from 15 June due to a major fire at the Jharia coal field. This is being done in view of the safety of passengers, the ministry of railways said.

The Railways said it has cancelled 13 mail/express trains and six passenger trains and diverted seven express trains.

Addressing the media at Rail Bahvan, member traffic, Railway Board, Mohamad Jamshed, said on an average 11 pairs of mail/express and six pairs of passenger trains run on the section daily.

Railways said the Howrah-Ranchi Shatabdi Express (12019/20) has been diverted to run via Dhanbad-Gomoh-Chandrapura route, the Gorakhpur-Hatia Maurya Express (15028/27) will run via Dhanbad-Gomoh-Chandrapura, Dhanbad-Alleppey Express (13351/52) will run via Dhanbad-Gomoh-Chandrapura, Howrah-Jabalpur Shaktipunj Express (11448/47) will run via Dhanbad-Gomoh-Chandrapura, Patna-Hatia Pataliputra Express (18621/22) will run via Chittranjan-Asansol and on reversal via Jaichandipahar- Bhojudiah-Talgharia-Bokaro; Dumka-Ranchi Intercity (18620/19) will run via Chittranjan-Asansol and reversal via Jaichandipahar- Bhojudiah-Talgharia-Bokaro and the Dhanbad-Ranchi intercity (13303/04) will run via Chittranjan-Asansol and reversal via Jaichandipahar- Bhojudiah-Talgharia-Bokaro.

The Railways has cancelled the following mail and express trains, including the Ranchi-Bhagalpore Vananchal Express (13403/04), tri-weekly Ranchi-Jaynagar Express (18605/06), tri-weekly Ranchi-Howrah Express (18627/28), tri-weekly Dhanbad-Bhubaneshwar Garib Rath (12831/32), tri-weekly Ranchi-Bhagalpur Express (18603/04), bi-weekly Ranchi-Kamakhya Express(15661/62), bi-weekly Darbhanga-Securabad Express (17007/08), weekly Ranchi-New Jalpaiguri Express (18629/30), weekly Hyderabad-Raxaul Express (17005/06), weekly Bhopal-Howrah Express(13025/26), weekly Kolkata-Ahmedabad Express (19413/14), weekly Kolkata-Ajmer Express (19607/08) and weekly Surat-Malda passenger train (13425/26).

Railways also announced the cancellation of passenger trains including, Muri-Dhanbad Passenger (53341/42), Chandrapura-Bhojudih Passenger (68079/80), Bokarao-Howrah Passenger (58013/14), Ranchi-Dhanbad Passenger (53335/36), Chandrapura-Dhanbad Passenger (53339/40),  and Jhargram-Dhanbad Passenger (68019/20).

Jamshed said special counters to facilitate refunds as per extant rules will be provided for the affected passengers. He reiterated that all efforts would be made to minimise passenger inconvenience.