Maoist rebels blow up rail tracks in Orissa

.....

"Two tracks have been blown up between Bhalulata and Bishra stations. Both the down and up tracks on the Howrah-Mumbai route were targeted," V.K. Srivastav, divisional commercial manager of Chhatrapur division, told IANS.

Maoists blew up the tracks using land mines at about 1.30 a.m. After the blast, eight wagons of a goods train derailed, about 20 km from Rourkela. The freight train was travelling from Jamshedpur in Jharkhand to Bilaspur in Chhattisgarh.

Train services along the Howrah-Mumbai route have been hit.

In the blast the overhead electricity transmission line along the route has also been damaged. Repair work along the line is on. Two rescue teams, railway and security officials have reached the spot.

Several long-distance trains, including Gitanjali Express, Utkal Express, Azad Hind Express and Kurla-Shalimar were detained at different stations due to the damage, railway officials said. Some trains have been diverted.

"We have diverted some trains as repair work will take some time," S.K. Panda, the station master of Rourkela station told IANS.

The blast occurred just hours after Home Minister P.Chidambaram held a meeting of chief ministers of Maoist affected states in Kolkata to fine tune inter-state operations against the ultras.