Train services between Dum Dum & Dankuni to be suspended for 4 days

Kolkata: Train services between Dum Dum Junction and Dankuni will be suspended for four days from January 23 to 27, owing to essential bridge repairs. The work, which involves the replacement of an old steel girder of the Rail Over Bridge (ROB) between Bally Ghat and Bally Halt stations, is expected to severely disrupt both local and express train services, as well as road traffic in the area.

The Sealdah Division of Eastern Railway (ER) had initially announced a traffic and power block from the night of January 22 to 23, extending for 100 hours, to carry out the necessary maintenance on the bridge. As a result, local train services in the Sealdah-Dankuni section will be completely suspended, leading to the cancellation of 22 pairs

of local trains.

However, on Friday, ER announced that the disruption would extend to other lines, including Sealdah-Kalyani Simanta, Sealdah-Barddhaman, Sealdah-Madhyamgram, Sealdah-Dum Dum Cantonment, Sealdah-Duttapukur and Naihati-Bandel. Between January 23 and 26, 15 additional pairs of local trains will be cancelled. In addition to local services, several express and mail trains will also be impacted. Starting from January 21, eight important express trains, including the Kolkata-Patna Garib Rath Express, Sealdah-Siuri Express, and the Darbhanga-Kolkata Maithili Express, will be cancelled until January 27.

Approximately 17 pairs of mail and express trains will be diverted via the Dum Dum-Naihati route during the block period, with some services, such as the Uttarbanga Express and Sealdah-Puri Duronto Express, being rerouted to Howrah

instead of Sealdah.

Road transport will also face significant disruption as partial closures of the Bally Bridge are set to begin from the midnight of January 22. To address the impact on road transport, a meeting was held on Friday involving state Transport department officials, bus operators, the representatives of National Highways Authority of India (NHAI), and police representatives from Barrackpore and Howrah, alongside railway officials.

In the meeting it was decided that buses going towards Bally Halt, Bombay Road, and Delhi Road from Kolkata will be diverted via Nivedita Setu, with no toll charges for buses during the block period. An official notification regarding these changes will be issued shortly.