Rail links with Sylhet snapped for over 16 hrs

Railway communications between Sylhet and other parts of the country resumed yesterday after remaining suspended for over 16 hours as a bridge in Moulvibazar subsided due to heavy rain and flash flood overnight. 

Part of the Jankichhora Railway Bridge on Akhaura-Sylhet route in Srimongol leaned to one side around 5:00am.

Some intercity and goods-laden trains halted at different spots on route following the disruption.

“The railway authorities stopped train services on the route because the tracks had become risky,” Rustom Ali Fakir, station master of Bhanugachh Railway Station in Moulvibazar, told this correspondent.

Bangladesh Railway (BR) Additional Chief Engineer Abdul Jalil around 6:00pm yesterday said the authorities were repairing the bridge.

The railway communications became normal around 9:30pm.

Meanwhile, around 100 of total 250 bridges on the 177-kilometre Sylhet-Kulaura-Akhaura rail route have become vulnerable due to lack of maintenance, railway officials said.

Kazi Shahidur Rahman, station master of Sylhet Railway Station, said the bridges were constructed over streams and rivers around 60 to 70 years ago.

Officials at the engineering department of the BR said none of the bridges had been repaired after their construction.

A good number of the bridges have subsided under pressure of the onrush of water and sand extraction from rivers in recent times, said Shahidur. 

Mujibur Rahman, assistant executive engineer of BR Sylhet division, said they could not repair the vulnerable bridges due to fund shortage.