The Bangladesh Railway on Thursday cancelled journeys of 26 trains fully and five others’ partially connecting Chattogram and Sylhet with different destinations of Bangladesh, following the bending of rail tracks and washout of stones due to flood.
Rail tracks bent in Feni, Chattogram, and Cox’s Bazar districts while tracks went under water in Habiganj district.Â
Movement of long route buses was also disrupted on the Dhaka-Chattogram and Chattogram-Cox’s Bazar highways as water submerged some points in Feni and Cox’s Bazar.
The authorities of Roads and Highways Department on Thursday asked its all officials and employees under Cumilla, Sylhet and Chattogram zones to stay at their workplaces until further notice to keep the road communications active.
Devastating flash floods are raging through 10 districts in eastern, southeast and northeast Bangladesh.
Bangladesh Railway’s Chattogram divisional manager Saiful Islam told ¶¶Òõ¾«Æ· that they had stopped running of all trains from Chattogram and Sylhet at about 12:30pm on Thursday.
‘The flood water submerged around 40 to 50 kilometres of rail tracks in Fazilpur area in Feni today,’ he said, adding, ‘then we stopped all train movement to and from Chattogram and Sylhet.’
Later a press release issued by the railway on Thursday read that due to heavy rainfall, soil under the rail tracks washed away bending the tracks in railway’s east zone.
Following heavy rainfall, soil, stones and sleepers washed away from the beneath of rail tracks and therefore the tracks bent on the Fazilpur-Kalidah section in Feni district.
On the Chattogram-Nazirhat-Dohazari-Cox’s Bazar section rail tracks bent after soil washed away for heavy rainfall.
Heavy rainfall also endangered the movement of trains on the Shayestaganj-Laskarpur section in Habiganj district.
In the same district water level increased on the river Khowai which endangered train movement on a rail bridge on the river.
As the railway officials requested to shut train services at these areas, the authorities cancelled journeys of a total of 26 trains for Thursday.
Hanif Enterprise manager Mosharraf Hossain said that they did not suspend long route buses from Dhaka to Chattogram till Thursday 5:30pm.
‘The buses which left the Saydabad terminal in Dhaka now stranded in the Feni area,’ he said and added that due to flood, bus journeys on Chattogram-Cox’s Bazar highway were also being disrupted.
¶¶Òõ¾«Æ· correspondent in Chattogram reported that bus services from Chattogram to Dhaka also halted.
Monowar Hossain, general manager of Saint Martin Paribahan said flood water caused heavy traffic in Feni area on the highway and most of the passengers have cancelled their reservation.
