Kolkata Mar 26 PTI Passengers of Howrah-bound Falaknama Express had a narrow escape on Saturday as the coupling between two bogies snapped near Bella station in Bengals Paschim Medinipur districtA SER official said no injury or casualty was reported in the incident as the motorman halted the train at 310 pm as soon as he realised that the coupling between compartments 22 and 23 had come offIt took railway staff around 30 minutes to fix the problem after which the train which had originated in Secunderabad left for Howrah stationAs the entire episode was over in half an hour movement of trains in the Howrah-Kharagpur section did not get affected the SER official said PTI SUS RMS RMS

Kolkata Oct 31 PTI The Eastern Railway will recommence the suburban EMU and other local train services within its jurisdiction in West Bengal for the general public after nearly six months as per normal timetable from Monday maintaining COVID restrictions an official said here on Sunday It will run more than 920 services in Sealdah division and more than 480 in Howrah division in up and down directions an ER official said The West Bengal government in its latest order on containing the spread of Covid-19 pandemic has allowed intra-state local train movement with 50 per cent seating capacity The Eastern and South Eastern Railway have been running staff special trains in their respective zones Suburban EMU and other local train services were suspended by the West Bengal government from May 7 to check the spread of coronavirus during the second phase of the pandemic ER is all set to resume intra-state passenger train services including suburban EMU services with 50 per cent seating capacity as per the advice of Government of West Bengal ER Spokesperson Ekalabya Chakraborty said The number of local trains will be as it was before the onset of COVID in March 2020 he said Chakraborty said that sanitisation of train compartments coach interiors and station premises with special emphasis on high contact areas were being done The ER spokesperson had earlier told PTI that the Kolkata-headquartered zonal railway is ready to run local train services according to the regular timetable from November 1 With the state government relaxing restrictions on local train movement from October 31 ER is running its services as per its holiday schedule on Sunday Regarding ensuring that 50 per cent seating capacity is maintained as per the state governments directive he said that the Eastern Railway will deploy RPF personnel and would also want the state administration to help in maintaining the restrictions on number of passengers The Eastern Railway carries the bulk of local and suburban passengers in its Howrah and Sealdah divisions with lakhs of passengers depending on these train services for their daily commute South Eastern Railway another zonal railway headquartered here said that it was restarting its local train services in a phased manner in its Kharagpur division In accordance with the advisory issued by the government of West Bengal it has been decided by South Eastern Railway to restore its SuburbanEMU locals in a phased manner plying in Howrah-Kharagpur-Midnapur Shalimar-Santragachi Panskura-Haldia Santragachi-Amta and Tamluk-Digha sections over Kharagpur Division with effect from October 31 2021 an SER official said It decided to restore services of 48 EMU locals from Sunday with 23 in the Up direction and 25 in the down direction he said PTI AMR RG RG