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Western Railway gives three coaches to derailed Duronto Express

The Western Railway (WR) has come to the aid of the Mumbai-Secunderbad Duronto Express that derailed near Martur station in Gulbarga on Saturday, by giving its own coaches to the latter so that it can continue its service.

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The Western Railway (WR) has come to the aid of the Mumbai-Secunderbad Duronto Express that derailed near Martur station in Gulbarga on Saturday, by giving its own coaches to the latter so that it can continue its service.

The derailment killed two people and injured several others. The WR will provide three Linke Hofmann Busch (LHB) air-conditioned coaches to make up for Duronto's damaged coaches – B-7, B-8, B-9, pantry car, H-1, A-1, A-2, A-3 and generator car.

According to the officials, WR's three coaches and Duronto's seven coaches that escaped the damage will be sent to the South Central Railway in Secunderbad, so that the train's schedule for Tuesday is not disrupted. They added that the train might run with a truncated number of coaches, since the current occupancy of the train is hovering around 70 per cent.

"When the train derailed on Saturday, it was just about 65 per cent full. After all, the railways does not have too many Duronto coaches and repairing them takes time, as there are very few workshops equipped to repair LHB coaches," said an official.

In its May 14 and July 29 editions, dna had reported about the trouble that the department faces in case of damage to LHB coaches in a mishap. On May 3 this year, the CST-Ernakulam Duronto Express derailed near Madgaon and 10 of its coaches were damaged. The Central Railway (CR) had to face considerable public ire, after it operated the train with conventional coaches.

The Railway Board had to finally intervene and ask the Northern Railway to provide 10 coaches to CR so that the LTT-Ernakulam Duronto service could resume. Incidentally, the rakes damaged at that time are still waiting their turn at WR's Lower Parel workshop for repair, almost four-and-a-half months after the incident.

The LHB overhaul problem:

Gradually, more and more rakes will be replaced with LHB coaches. While these coaches come with greater passenger comfort and riding qualities, their overhaul and repair is an issue. As of now, these coaches can be overhauled only at Lower Parel workshop in Mumbai, Liluah workshop in Howrah, West Bengal and Jagadhri workshop in Yamunanagar, Haryana. Plans are afoot to build facilities at Lalguda workshop in Secunderabad, Telengana, and Dibrugarh workshop in Assam.
 

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