Just a day after the first-ever train journey on the much-hyped Cox’s Bazar-Dhaka route, a group of unidentified miscreants stole nuts and bolts from the rail track in Ramu upazila of the tourist district.
This caused the Cox’s Bazar Express commercial train to leave the Cox's Bazar station half an hour later.
Even though nobody could immediately be detained over the incident at the Kahatiapara area of Rashid Nagar union of Ramu, the authorities concerned were not fully sure if it was an act of sabotage.
Cox’s Bazar Railway Station Master Mohammad Golam Rabbani said that the train was scheduled to start its journey for Dhaka at 12:30pm but it was delayed by 30 minutes as part of the rail line in question was being repaired.
“We received the information through the government’s intelligence agencies in the morning. Later, it was conveyed at all levels, including the people concerned,” he said.
Later, the authorities, including railway engineers, visited the spot and construction workers repaired the line. The stolen tools could not be recovered.
Ramu Upazila Nirbahi Officer (UNO) Fahmida Mostafa and Ramu police station Officer-in-Charge (OC) Abu Taher Dewan visited the site on Saturday morning.
The police are probing the incident, OC Taher said.
The Cox's Bazar Express was inaugurated on the Dhaka-Cox's Bazar railway from Cox's Bazar Railway Station at around 12:30pm on Friday.
It reached Kamalapur at around 9:40pm.
The criminal offence of unscrewing the nuts and bolts of a newly-launched much-talked-about project is nothing new.
The Padma Bridge mega project faced a similar situation when its nuts and bolts were removed by at least two people soon after the iconic bridge was made open to traffic in June last year.