Sabotage bid feared as iron block found on railway track in Kanhangad

Kanhangad (Kasaragod): An iron block was found fixed with concrete on the rail track at Kottikulam near here. This is the second suspected sabotage bid here in two months. The Railways is viewing the incidents seriously, with sources hinting that a detailed probe would be held, considering them as “deliberate” derail bids.

On Saturday a major tragedy was averted when an alert loco pilot of the Mangaluru-Chennai Superfast took timely action and quickly informed the Railway Protection Force (RPF) about the obstacle. Luckily, no other train was passing through the affected track then.

A team of RPF from the Kasaragod railway station reached the spot and conducted an inspection after removing the hindrance. The iron block was detected on the Bekkal-Kottikulam section towards the Kasaragod side. The metal, fixed in concrete, was part of a portion earlier removed as part of track maintenance works.

The RPF probe team suspects the role of more than one person in placing the heavy object on the track. This was near the spot where anti-social elements placed boulders one after the other on the railway track last month.

There were several incidents in the recent past when boulders were found placed on tracks at many places in the Kannur and Kasaragod districts.

Meanwhile, unknown persons threw stones at the speeding Coimbatore-Mangaluru train at Chittari. The incident happened at 5.22 pm on Saturday at the western side of the Chittari Grand auditorium. No one was injured in the incident.