Railway Protection Force here averted a mishap today as it recovered an improvised explosive device (IED) from the railway track on Odisha-Jharkhand border area in time.
The IED, put in a steel container and placed near the railway track on the busy Howrah-Mumbai route, was recovered following an information received by RPF here, said DSP, RPF Alok Jena.
The exact location of the explosive device was between Ramda in Odisha and Karampada in Jharkhand range.
The bomb disposal squad of CRPF was soon pressed into service which neutralised the device, he said.
Jena said security forces were immediately sent to the site and train services were cancelled on that route for about seven hours. "As that is an exclusive goods track, no passenger train services were affected. Goods movement resumed after midday," said the DSP.
The IED, which was inside a steel container, was kept inside a sack. This was kept close to the track with wires attached to it. Locals found the device lying in the open and they gave the message to us, said Jena.
"We were yet to ascertain whose handiwork was this," he said. In the past there had been instances when Maoists had placed IEDs on the track.
Police and CRPF personnel have launched a search operation in the area near the rail tracks.
