Local train services in the Sealdah South suburban section were crippled for over an hour on Wednesday afternoon after a fire broke out in a series of shanties along the railway lines near Dhakuria station.
Around 12 shanties were gutted, leaving some 20 families homeless. Police put the number of damaged shanties at seven. There were no casualties, the police said.
Local sources said the fire was triggered by an LPG cylinder. The police said the cause of the fire is being probed.
The area where the fire broke out is between Jadavpur and Dhakuria railway stations. It was reported shortly after 1pm. As scores of people fled their homes and assembled on the tracks with whatever they could lay their hands on, the railway authorities said they were forced to suspend train operations. The shanties are a few steps away from the tracks.
“Train services were suspended on all but one line of the Sealdah South section from 1.10pm to 2.26pm,” said a Sealdah division official.
“During this period, trains ran only on the Sealdah-Budge Budge line. There were no trains on the Sealdah-Canning, Sealdah-Namkhana, Sealdah-Lakshmikantapur and Sealdah-Diamond Harbour lines,” he said.
Kausik Mitra, the chief public relations officer of Eastern Railway, said five pairs of EMU locals were cancelled.
But many more trains were stranded on the tracks or at stations because the Jadavpur-Dhakuria section was off limits for trains.
Sealdah station records average daily footfall of 12 lakh. The Sealdah South suburban section, which connects Calcutta with different pockets of South 24-Parganas, is the lifeline for a bulk of the city’s workforce.
On Wednesday, tens of thousands of passengers were left stranded on trains or on platforms following the curbs. At Ballygunge, Park Circus, Dhakuria and Jadavpur, the platforms were crowded.
Badal Paik, who was headed to Champahati, waited for a train at Bagha Jatin station for 40 minutes before looking for another mode of transport. Paik works for an online home services aggregator.
The place where the fire broke out on Wednesday is known as Babubagan Colony. The fire was preceded by a deafening noise, said residents of the colony.
“My aunt informed me about the fire. I rushed to the spot and saw our home was completely burnt,” said Soudamini Naskar, 27, who lived in one of the gutted shanties with his maternal uncles and their families. Naskar works at a shop selling cosmetics in Ganguly Bagan.
Many people who live in the shanties trace their roots to interior pockets of South 24-Parganas and have come to Calcutta to earn a livelihood.
A railway official described the shanties as “encroachments on railway premises”.
“There are many such encroachments in the Sealdah division alone. We have stepped up our campaign against such structures,” said the official.
Two tenders were deployed to douse the flames but the tracks posed a challenge for the vehicles to reach the spot.
“The displaced people will be sheltered at a local club and community hall until their homes are rebuilt,” said Madhuchhanda Deb, the councillor of Ward 92.
Howrah trouble
Trains could not use platforms 1 to 6 of Howrah station for over an hour early on Wednesday because of a glitch at a signalling point.
“As an empty rake of the Katihar-Howrah Express was backing from platform No. 6 at Howrah station, signalling point 90 burst, blocking platforms 1 to 6,” said a railway official.
A total of 22 local trains were cancelled. Normal services resumed at 7.30am, the official said.
