Drug Addicts Remove Fish Plates Of Railway Tracks In Bikaner

A search operation has been launched to find out the culprits but no progress has been made on the matter so far.

Bikaner (Rajasthan): An incident of railway track tampering has come to light after the jointers of the fish plates were found loosened in Chaukhunti Mohalla area of Bikaner district on Sunday evening. Preliminary investigation suggests that this was done by some drug addicts.

After getting the information, the railway engineers rushed to the spot to fix the track for restoration of services. Lalgarh RPF station in-charge Usha Nirankari inquired about the incident with the locals who said some youngsters did the mischief. A search operation has been launched to find out the culprits but no progress has been made on the matter so far. Nirankari said the matter is being probed.

An ironsmith, Rohitash Bissa, accompanied by other workers carried out the repair work. He said when he reached the spot, he saw some youths fleeing leaving the fish plates open.

The fish plate is used to join two rails together. It is also called a jointer. It strengthens the rail joint in both directions. It transfers the load of the wheels from one rail to the other. The fish plate is bolted to the ends of each rail. Generally, all fish plates have four holes to fix the bolts. If they are loosened or removed there is a risk of a major accident as the train bogies can come off the tracks after losing balance.

Such cases have come to light many times when drug addicts were seen snatching mobile phones and other things from passengers sitting on the train.