After 51 hours, goods train passes accident site, operations set to start today

KOLKATA: After 51 hours after Friday's accident, a goods train completed a run on the affected stretch late at night, clearing the way for resumption of services long-distance trains along the trunk route between Kolkata and Chennai from midnight on Sunday.
After a trolley run, a goods train passed through the affected stretch safely under the watch of Union railway minister Ashwini Vaishnaw and senior railway ministers. The minister said, "We have a deep pain in our heart, but I also wish to congratulate all those who have worked relentlessly to restore services. We will go to the root cause of the accident and punish those responsible."
Aditya Kumar Chowdhary, CPRO, SER, told TOI, "All trains on the route will be back on normal sched-ule soon."
Friday's accident of Coromandel Express, Bengaluru-Howrah Superfast Express and a goods train resulted in cancellation of over 90 long-distance trains while 50 were diverted.
SER is due to run trains, like the 12839 Howrah-Chennai Mail at 12.55am instead of the usual departure at 11.55pm and the 12837 Howrah-Puri Express at 11.40pm instead of 10.40pm, along the usual route through Balasore. Similarly, the 12863 Howrah-Bengaluru Express is due to leave Howrah at 12.25am instead of 10.55pm.
"A goods train was run for piloting and track checking, following which, the above trains will be back to normal services," an SER official said.
The Howrah-Puducherry Express, leaving at 12.25am instead of 11.25pm, and Shalimar-Thiruvananthapuram Express, leaving at 12.50am instead of 11.50pm, are also due to pass through Balasore. "All these trains' departures have been pushed back by an hour because the link trains were diverted through longer routes," an official said.
Though officials said most trains would run normally from Monday, those, like Kamakhya-Bengaluru train scheduled on Tuesday, were cancelled according to SER's notification.
But efforts were on since Sunday morning to bring the closed route back on track. SER ran two special MEMU trains from Howrah to Balasore, to allow travellers to avail of short-distance services. One of the two local trains left Howrah at 10.30am while the other departed at 1pm. The trains stopped at all stations between Howrah and Balasore. Similarly, a special train left Bhadrak for Chennai at 1pm, stopping at Cuttack, Bhubaneswar and all major places enroute.
(Inputs from Rohit Khanna & Sujoy Khanra in Balasore)