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Railway service grinds to a halt
JANAKPUR, JUL 19 -
The one and only railway service, Janakpur-Jayanagar Railway, has halted indefinitely from Monday. Services are down as both the trains malfunctioned.
On Monday morning, the Janakpur bound train derailed near Mahinathpur station. There was no human casualty though. Another train had technical problems with its engine the same
day, leaving hundreds of passengers stranded. Thanks to the obstruction, thousands of people in at least various 50 VDCs in the area are affected. The rail service halted at a time when bus services operating via Indian land in the area got hit by the monsoon rain.
The halt in railway services also affects the health, education sectors and industries in the area. Harihar Sah, 60, who set out for his residence in Khajuri from Janakpur on foot, vented ire.
“The railway service should either be run regularly or halted forever. The
sporadic halt of operations affects us badly,” said enraged Sah. Khajuri is about 22 kilometres from Janakpur.
Janakpur-Jayanagar Railway is in a pitiful condition due to the negligence of the government. The trains operating here have met accidents 10 times
within the past three months.
Six years back, the government decided to run the railway as a
company. The government’s decision, according to the railway employees,
further pushed the service operator into trouble.
Acting General Manager of the railway Ramchandra Sah said the government tried to avoid responsibility.
The railway administration said it incurred a loss of about Rs 10 million the last fiscal.
General Manager Sanjiv Kumar Mallik, currently in the Capital, told the Post over telephone that the railway needs at least Rs. 70 million.
Posted on: 2010-07-20 08:20
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