The East Coast Railway (ECoR) has decided to immediately clamp restrictions on night movement of trains, mostly freight trains, on the 450-km-long Kottavalasa-Kirandul line.

Accordingly, night running of iron ore rakes will remain suspended on the route from 8 p.m. to 6 a.m. and the restriction, to come into force from tonight itself, will be in force till June 12, it is learnt.

ECoR’s decision follows intelligence report that the Maoists in Bastar and Dandakaranya areas of Chhattisgarh will observe ‘Janapituri Week from June 5 to 11’.

The railways has been urged by the appropriate authorities to take precautionary measures, more so because earlier experiences suggest that wagons, locomotives and railway stations on the KK line are always the targets of attacks whenever such celebrations take place.

The KK line, it might be noted, is used for transportation of iron ore from NMDC’s mines in Chhattisgarh to Visakhapatnam partly for exports and partly to meet the requirements of Visakhapatnam steel plant and other steel producers in the region.

Rake movement on the route has been free from any interruption for quite some time, so much so that the average daily throughput rose from the earlier 14/15 rakes to around 17/18 rakes, it is learnt.

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