Naxals blow up railway tracks in Jharkhand

The Naxals blew up railway tracks in Jharkhand's Giridih district affecting train services on the busy Grand Chord Dhanbad division, an official said on Tuesday.

On Monday at around 10.45 p.m., the insurgents detonated a bomb on the tracks of the Chaudhary Bandh station, the senior East Central Railway official said.

Around two feet of the railway track was damaged and the signalling system stopped functioning. 

"Six trains at different stations had to be halted," the official said.

The blast could have led to a major accident, but it was averted due to the alertness of railway staff Mubarak Hussain and Chandra Kumar, Railways Director (Media) Rajesh Dutt Bajpai in New Delhi told IANS.

"Both were on night patrol. The moment they heard the blast they immediately alerted the Assistant Station Manager (ASM) who prevented an approaching goods train from progressing on the damaged tracks," Bajpai said.

Chairman Railway Board Ashwani Lohani has decided to award them.

Restoration work on the route was underway.-IANS