Train hit kills two in track `trespass'

TT,  Alipurduar: Two retired rail employees died and four others were injured when a train rammed into a pick-up van passing through the tracks at a point where there was no level crossing in neighbouring Assam on Sunday. 

Senior officials of the Northeast Frontier Railway rushed to the spot and initiated relief and rescue operations with the help of locals. Due to the accident, train movement between Bengal and Assam was affected for over an hour. 

Sources said a group of retired railway employees was headed to a picnic in six vehicles. 

Instead of moving through a level crossing, they tried to cross the tracks at an unusual location between Dangtola and Basugaon stations. 

Five vehicles could cross the tracks but the sixth was hit by the Lokmanya Tilak Terminal (Mumbai)-Guwahati Express around 9.50am. Sailen Das, 67, and Dilip Kumar Deb, 70, died on the spot. The four injured were rushed to a hospital in Assam's Kokrajhar. 

"There is not even an unmanned level crossing at the place where the accident occurred. It is nothing but an act of trespassing on the tracks that led to the incident. We are surprised the picnic party had former rail employees who are well aware of the consequences of trying to cross the tracks at an unusual place," said a senior railway official of the Alipurduar division of NFR. 

Promod Deka, a retired railway employee and a member of the group, claimed a long-standing demand for a level crossing at the spot. 

"Hundreds of people and vehicles cross the point. There is a demand to build a level crossing but the railways have not met the demand so far. The wheels of the last vehicle of our group had got stuck on the tracks when the train came and hit it," he said. 

Deka did not say why the group took the route. 

"A vehicle trespassing the tracks was hit by a train. We have started an inquiry. Due to the accident, train movement was affected for about an hour," said C.V. Raman, DRM of the Alipurduar division of NFR. The van hit by the train on the tracks