Officials say recommendation of safety commissioner is not practical; it will be a drain on the sources, the assert.
Two fire extinguishers per door of a suburban local i.e 180 of such red metal cans for every 12-coach train. This was one of the many recommendations of the Commissioner of Railway Safety while granting permission to the new Bombardier rakes in February – the railways is supposed to implement the suggestions in a time-bound manner. Another was to have smoke detectors in coaches of suburban trains with a mechanism where after smoke is detected, a siren is sounded and then automatic brakes of the train are applied.
A letter written by CRS Chetan Bakshi, a copy of which is available with dna, states that these measures are part of the recommendation given to the two Bombardier rakes. The letter mentions that the sanction given to the two rakes is valid for 6 months from the commissioning of the trains. Since the first Bombardier rake was thrown open for the public on March 18, the validity of the CRS sanction is till September 18.
The city's suburban network is supposed to get 70 more Bombardier rakes in the coming months.
However there is still no clarity on whether the railways is supposed to implement these recommendations before September 19. Speaking to dna, safety commissioner Bakshi informed that he had not heard from the railways on this issue since granting sanction to the Bombardier rake on February 5.
"I have not been told anything about when the railways plans to implement this recommendation. I know these things take time as in some cases permission from the railway board is required. I will wait for another month before taking the next step on the matter. I believe these recommendations are for public safety and must be adhered to," said Bakshi.
While publicly railways officials were unwilling to take an opposing stand to the CRS recommendation, privately they admitted that the order looked 'excessive'. "Why does a suburban coach require 16 fire extinguishers? Past incidents on the suburban system have shown that commuters get more than enough time to get off the train if it catches fire. A fire-extinguisher will not help much since people are more engrossed in escaping a train that has caught fire rather than stay back and try to douse it. That is the job of professionals and should be left to them," said a senior railway official.
Another official said that the presence of these fire-extinguishers will make them a target for thieves and vandals. "It will be a drain on resources if these extinguishers keep getting stolen and we have to replace them. Remember we are talking about almost 180 extinguishers on a rake and Mumbai's suburban system has more that 200 rakes," said the official.
Fires on local trains
April 3, 2014
Chaos struck Dadar station after fire and smoke started bellowing out of the motorcoach of a Karjat-CST train. The incident occurred moments moments the local entered platform No.6. There were no injuries as people had ample time to get off the train.
December 4, 2012
In one of the worst fire incidents on the suburban system, an Andheri-CST train caught fire after one of its motor coaches exploded, singing 11 commuters. The injuries in this incident was from the spilling of the oil inside the motor coach transformer. Despite the local being overcrowded, it gave people enough time to scamper to safety.
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
)
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
)
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
)
)
)
)
)
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}