Railway traffic was restored on Saturday evening on the track on which a Guwahati-bound express train had derailed on Thursday.

Nine passengers were killed and over 30 injured when the 15633 Bikaner-Guwahati Express had jumped the tracks at Domohoni in the Maynaguri block of Jalpaiguri district.

Trains had started moving through the second track, which had remained unaffected, from Saturday morning.

Trains were allowed to pass through the affected track at a restricted speed after repairs. “Movement of trains resumed along both the tracks which are on the principal route that connects the Northeast with the rest of the country. In the affected section, trains are moving at a slow speed,” said an official of the Northeast Frontier Railway (NFR).

The Northeast Frontier Railway has decided to replace the old coaches of Sikkim-Mahananda Link Express — which runs between Alipurduar and New Delhi — with LHB compartments.

“We will soon start running the Mahananda Express with LHB coaches. A decision has been made in this regard,” said Sanjib Ghosh, the senior divisional commercial manager of the Alipurduar division of the NFR. Thursday’s derailment has occurred in the jurisdiction of the Alipurduar division.

As of now, like a number of other trains, the Mahananda Express runs with bogies

manufactured at Integral Coach Factory, Kapurthala. But LHB (Linke Hofmann Busch) coaches are considered to be more safe.

The commissioner of railway safety (CRS) has started an inquiry into the derailment. Sources said the preliminary investigation found out that when the train was crossing Jalpaiguri Road station which was ahead of Domohoni where the derailment occurred, sparks had been seen in the axles of the loco and on the general sitting coaches.

The loco pilot and the guards were informed and they had stopped and checked the train. They apparently did not find anything.

They resumed the journey and soon after the train crossed the Teesta Bridge and the New Domohoni station, the derailment occurred.

“There are reports that the loco pilot had applied the brakes twice. Some of the coaches came to a halt but the remaining bogies derailed because of the inertia of motion,” said a source.

On Monday, a three-member forensic team will reach the site. The Railway Protection Force is also conducting a probe into the accident.

As three days have passed after the accident, the injured passengers have started recuperating and many of them have been discharged from the hospitals. At the super-specialty hospital in Jalpaiguri, there were 23 patients under treatment but by Saturday, 22 of them had been released.

In North Bengal Medical College and Hospital, Manik Oraon, a young boy from Cooch Behar who lost his father in the accident, is still under treatment with some other patients. “He has suffered a serious injury to his leg and needs surgery. However, he has been simultaneously tested Covid positive and has been kept in isolation,” said a doctor in NBMCH.