LPG cylinder found on railway tracks in Roorkee in another train derailment bid

A major disaster was narrowly averted on Sunday morning when an empty LPG cylinder was discovered on the railway tracks near Roorkee in Uttarakhand. The cylinder was spotted by the locomotive pilot of a freight train, who immediately alerted authorities, preventing a possible derailment.

Northern Railway’s Chief Public Relations Officer (CPRO) Himanshu Upadhyay said the incident took place at 6:35 am between Landaura and Dhandhera stations, about a kilometer from Dhandhera. A switchman attended and confirmed that the cylinder was empty. He has since been taken into the custody of the Dhandhera station master.

The local police and the Government Railway Police (GRP) have been informed and an FIR is being lodged.

The incident is one of several in a recent spate of attempted train derailments across India. Indian Railways revealed there have been 18 such attempts across the country since August, with three more reported in the weeks since. In the most recent case, another LPG cylinder was found on the Kanpur railway tracks.

Since June 2023, there have been 24 incidents involving various objects, including LPG cylinders, bicycles, iron bars and cement blocks, placed on the tracks with the apparent aim of derailing trains. Of these, 15 incidents occurred in August, and a further five in September, highlighting growing concern over rail safety.