Railway traffic is yet to be restored even after more than 30 hours since the Howrah-Mumbai Mail and a goods train derailed near Barabambo station under the Chakradharpur division of South Eastern Railway in Jharkhand damaging all three tracks of the Howrah-Mumbai route.

South Eastern Railway general manager Anil Kumar Mishra, who is camping at the mishap site, told reporters that efforts are on to restore railway traffic at the earliest and the third line would be made functional first.

Senior divisional commercial manager, Chakradharpur division, Aditya Choudhary said that the efforts are on to start the third line by Wednesday night.

“The bi-directional third line on the Howrah-Mumbai route is tentatively planned to be made operational on Wednesday itself. Other two lines (the up and down lines) are planned to be made operational in due course,” said Choudhary.

According to the local Seraikela-Kharsawan police, the Tatanagar-bound goods train carrying clinkers had derailed on the down line (towards Howrah) a few minutes before the Howrah-Mumbai Mail came on the up line (towards Mumbai). The mail’s engine grazed the goods train at around 3.45 am on Tuesday leading to the death of two passengers and leaving nearly 20 hospitalised.

“Nearly 18 coaches of the Howrah-Mumbai Mail jumped tracks because of the impact near Potobera village between Rajkharsawan and Barabambo railway stations. The area falls under the Chakradharpur railway division of South Eastern Railway, about 80km from Jamshedpur,” said a senior police officer at Seraikela-Kharsawan involved in the rescue operation.

Railway officials said that restoration work of the tracks is going on at the accident site with the help of four 140-tonne cranes and several JCB machines and hundreds of railway workers and contract labourers.