A minor blaze broke out in one of the air-conditioned coaches of the Alipurduar-bound Kanchankanya Express near Bagdogra station while it was heading towards Siliguri on Friday morning.
According to railway sources, a section of passengers could smell something was burning under the coach and also smoke was emanating from it.
“The train was at that time crossing the Atal tea estate, near Bagdogra. The loco pilot and the guard immediately stopped the train. The next stop of the train was Siliguri Junction, 18km away,” said a source.
The loco pilot and the guard examined the coach and after some time, the train was taken to Bagdogra railway station. Meanwhile, the GRP and RPF personnel, along with railway officials and fire engines from Matigara, rushed to the Bagdogra station.
They thoroughly inspected the coach and around 11am, the train left for Siliguri Junction, almost an hour after its scheduled time.
“During preliminary examination, it was found that the brake-binder of the wheels (which is made of rubber), somehow got heated. There was no major blaze and the train reached its destination — Alipurduar Junction — safely,” said S Chanda, the chief public relation officer of the NFR.
Miscreants nabbed
Police arrested five miscreants from Englishbazar in Malda. Acting on a tip off, a team of Englishbazar police station in Malda conducted a raid in a locality that is close to the government polytechnic located on Malda-Manikchak state highway on Thursday night and arrested five miscreants.
The gang, police sources said, had assembled to commit a robbery in the locality. A number of sharp and blunt weapons have been recovered from them. All the five are residents of different localities of Malda district.
