Station besieged and trains halted demanding service
Locals block passenger trains at Bonarpara railway station in Saghata upazila of Gaibandha district yesterday demanding resumption of service of two trains at the station. Photo: STAR
A few hundred people Friday besieged Bonarpara railway station and detained two passenger trains for three hours demanding immediate resumption of services two of trains on Bonarpara-Dinajpur and Bonarpara-Santaher routes. Agitated people set up barricade on the tracks and detained Lalmonirhat bound Padmarag and Santaher bound local train for three hours at the station. They chanted slogans demanding reintroduction of two suspended trains with immediate effect. Otherwise a greater agitation will be launched paralysing total rail communication in the region, they threatened. Ramshagor Express 59/60 on Gaibandha-Dinajpur railway route was suspended without any prior notice. The train is lying idle at Bonarpara station for the last two weeks causing immense sufferings to passengers of adjacent upazilas. The train started journey on November 12, 2010 and went off the track for 50 days after its inception on the plea of locomotive and manpower shortage, according to railway sources. To ease rail communication in northern districts of Rangpur Division, the train used to shuttle between Bonarpara in Gaibandha and Dinajpur via Kawnia. It left Bonarapara station at 6:30 am and returned from Dinajpur at 2:50 pm everyday. Another local train 491/492, that helped mostly the college goers, had been running between Bonarpara and Santaher via Bogra since long. The railway authorities suddenly suspended the train last one week without any notice. To ease communication in the area, locals demanded immediate resumption of services of the two suspended trains. The authorities were compelled to stop these two trains for want of adequate locomotive power. They will return to service as soon as the power is available, said the station master of Bonarpara railway station. Normal rail communication restored yesterday after about three hours when the railway divisional manger at Lalmonirhat assured the agitating people of resuming the two trains with immediate effect.
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