Close shave for Jharkhand migrant workers walking back home on railway tracks

A group of 20 migrant workers walking on railway tracks had a narrow escape when an inspection van stopped in front of them on a river bridge here, officials said on Saturday.

The migrants were returning to Jharkhand from West Bengal's Birbhum district.

The incident which took place around 9:30 pm on Friday comes close on the heels of the death of 16 migrant workers in Aurangabad district of Maharashtra. The workers were run over by a goods train when they were sleeping on the railway tracks. Ironically, the incident also took place on Friday morning.

The group of 20 labourers, including women and children, had managed to reach the temple town of Tarapith from Purba Bardhaman district during the lockdown and started walking on the tracks to reach neighbouring Jharkhand on Friday night.

When they were on a bridge over the river Brambhani around 9.30 pm, an inspection van came from the opposite direction, from Pakur in Jharkhand, officials said.

The driver of the inspection van applied emergency brake after he noticed the people, who included women and children, on the track.

After the driver informed the control room, a GRP team reached there and brought them to Nalhati in Birbhum district, they said.

Sources in the Eastern Railway zone said in Kolkata on Saturday that fortunately the Engineering & Inspection car inspecting tracks was moving at a slow speed and on spotting the walkers on the railway line stopped on time.

They were removed from the tracks, they said.

All the 20 workers who were saved are sheltered in the Nalhati BDO' office and efforts are on to send them to Jharkhand safely, officials said.

More details about them are being collected, they added.