Even though seven days have passed since a train derailment leading to an oil spill in Chittagong, authorities have neither been able to salvage the submerged oil wagons nor resume the rail link between the port city and Dohajaree.
The lack of adequate salvage equipment and inclement weather have been blamed for the sluggish recovery process. However, two probe bodies formed to look into the incident have also been unable hand in their reports as of filing this report yesterday; their deadline was Tuesday.
Last Friday, thousands of litres of furnace oil spilled into the Boalkhali canal after a locomotive and three oil wagons derailed when the Number 24 Bridge – locally known as Shakerpool – collapsed.
Two train drivers were injured in the incident, while it is feared that around 90,000 litres of oil spilled into the water of the canal, which later spread to Karnaphuli and Halda Rivers with rain and tidal waters.
Bangladesh Railway (East) Divisional Traffic Officer Firoze Iftekhar said the rail tracks have been repaired, but the salvage operation was slowed down in the last two days by heavy downpours and strong tides in the canal.
“We hope the situation would be okay within a couple of days,” he said.
Mofizur Rahman, divisional manager for BR (East), said they were working hard to fix the problem, adding that the probe committees were yet to submit their reports.
“All the senior officials and staffs of Bangladesh Railway are busy at the [accident] spot over the salvage operation; so there is little opportunity to carry out administrative work in this situation,” he added.
Two probe bodies – one led by BR Chief Mechanical Engineer Harun-or-Rashid and another by BR (East) Divisional Engineer-1 Abidur Rahman – were formed to look into the incident.
A power crisis looms
Meanwhile, the snapping of the Chittagong-Dohajaree rail link meant the supply of furnace oil to the 100MW Dohajaree Peaking Power Plant remained suspended as of yesterday.
This may lead to a power crisis in the port city, cautioned officials at the power plant. The supply is expected to resume only after the rail link is restored.
The plant’s Manager Arifur Rahaman said the plant had a 10-day stock of furnace oil for production at the time of the accident. As seven days have already passed, a power crisis may arise if supply does not resume within the next few days, he added.
Boalkhali bridges are falling down
The bridge which partially collapsed on Friday had already been blacklisted by the BR as a vulnerable “dead spot” around eight years ago.
This is the second such incident in the Boalkhali upazila, where another oil-carrying wagon train derailed on July 31, 2013, from the Kalurghat Bridge.
According to BR (East), a total 58 small bridges on the Chittagong-Dohajaree route were in bad shapes, while four small bridges were identified as “dead spots” similar to Friday’s collapsed bridge.
Following the Kalurghat accident of 2013, the Department of Environment urged the BR to repair rail infrastructure on the route and recommended introducing bottom-line mouth for oil wagons instead of up-line mouths, so that oil would not be spilled even if the wagons turned turtle. But those recommendations are yet to be implemented.