RailEnquiry

South Eastern Railway’s general manager A.K Verma on Monday blamed the state government for failing to rein in Maoists, who were a big hurdle to development of railways in the tribal heartland.Verma was speaking to mediapersons at Bokaro railway station where he had come for an inspection.“Maoists target railway property time and again. Four attacks on the railways took place in this state over the past six months. Whenever there is a bandh, railway property has to bear the major brunt and this definitely affects our progress. Such incidents not only slow down ongoing projects, but also give us a big blow financially,” he said.He pointed out that projects like the Latehar-Chandwa and Lohardaga-Puri lines would have been completed by now, but for Naxalite intervention. “We have been pressing the state administration to provide security to railway property and projects for which several rounds of meeting with top bureaucrats and even police officers had been held,” Verma said.Agreeing that Adra railway division has 829 unmanned railway crossings that are prone to accidents, the general manager promised that by 2015, these mishap spots will be made safer.Justifying the rise in train fares, he said the railways was reeling under a loss of more than Rs 34,000 crore per year.