Bhubaneswar,(Orissa Today) Feb 5: Two officers of the Ordnance Factory at Badmal in Balangir district have been suspended after 12 mortar shells were discovered in a wagon of a goods train at Kantabanji railway station. The recovery was made by railway security personnel two days ago.
Sources revealed that the recovered TNT (trinitrotoluene) shells were from a 2015 batch and were used in the Bofors gun. Following the incident, ADG (Railway) Arun Bothra confirmed that the shells belonged to the Ordnance Factory Badmal (OFBL) in Saintala.
An investigation by the Railway Protection Force (RPF) found that the Central Ammunition Depot in Pulgaon, Maharashtra, had dispatched 25 containers of 155 mm mortar shells via a goods train that arrived at Badmal station on Friday. The train was moved to the ordnance factory’s exchange yard at 6 PM the same day and released at 3 PM on Saturday after unloading. However, the mortar shells were detected at Kantabanji at 10:40 AM on Sunday when rice bags were being loaded.
Upon discovery, the Kantabanji station master alerted the Government Railway Police (GRP) and local police. Ordnance factory officers arrived at 4 PM and presented documents verifying the shipment. The shells were subsequently handed over to factory officials in the presence of law enforcement.
Officials attributed the incident to a human error, stating that a container with 12 shells was mistakenly left inside the wagon by on-duty staff. The Ordnance authorities have ordered a detailed inquiry into the matter.
Two officers suspended after mortar shells found in goods train at Kantabanji
