Movement of over 18 trains was hit for a couple of hours as a fire broke out in the panel control room at Muri station, some 60km from the capital under Ranchi division of South Eastern Railway, on Monday morning.

Short-circuit is said to be the reason behind the fire. Divisional railway manager (DRM) of South Eastern Railway Neeraj Ambastha, who confirmed the accident, ruled out sabotage. “It is an accident. Not sabotage,” Ambastha categorically said when asked if the fire had any link with railway property being targeted in Bengal by Citizen (Amendment) Act protesters. Muri is 50km from Bengal.

Around 8.30am, the fire was noticed on the first floor of the triple-storey control room adjacent to platform 3 of Muri station through which pass trains to Calcutta, New Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Renukoot, Surat, Guwahati, Patna, Kanpur, Puri and Jammu, among others.

It took 45 minutes for firefighters from Hindustan Aluminum Company to control the fire. By 10.07am, the movement of trains resumed with manual traffic management.

Trains delayed by two to three hours included the Jai Nagar-Ranchi Express, Ranchi-Bardwan Memu, Tatanagar-Ranchi Express, Ranchi-Kharagpur, Ranchi-Chopan Intercity, Asansol-Ranchi Memu Passenger and Bokaro-Ranchi Passenger.

DRM of South Eastern Railway Ambastha said the control room would be repaired within 48 hours. “Trains have started running. We will repair the panel control room within 48 hours,” he said.

A railway employee said manual controlling was a tough job. “Manual signalling means one has to manually interlock railway lines. For each interlock, a railway worker has to spend 30 to 40 minutes, something that takes under a minute with the computerised interlocking system,” he said.