Thousands of passengers on Konkan Railway (KR) had a horror commute when the single-line system collapsed after 12 wagons of a goods train carrying wheat derailed between Chiplun and Kamathe stations around 7.45am on Tuesday.
The derailment severely damaged more than 160 metres of tracks and since all the derailed wagons needed to be unloaded before being rerailed, one of the country's most congested routes was off-track for the entire day.
Scores of trains got terminated or diverted because of the derailment leaving passengers delayed for almost five hours. The Maharashtra State Road Transport Corporation (MSRTC) deployed 80 buses — 40 each at Chiplun and Ratnagiri — to trans-ship passengers from stranded trains between the two stations.
Among the trains that were affected were the LTT-Mangalore Matsyagandha Express, Konkankanya Express, Swantwadi-Dadar Rajyarani Express, LTT-Ernakulam Duronto and several other passenger trains. Some of these passenger trains got terminated at Panvel and Roha during their onward journey towards the Konkan, leaving thousands in the lurch.
Officials at KR said that the work of re-railing the trains was taking time since all the wagons, loaded with several tons of wheat, had to be first unloaded so as to bring down their weight. "This takes time because the wheat bags should not be damaged during the unloading. It is food stock after all," said an official.
The derailment once again brings into focus the pounding the tracks are taking on KR, thanks to the need to run as many goods trains, along with a huge number of mail/express trains, to keep the accounts books of the single-line railway healthy.
Officials agreed that time for short-cuts on KR was fast running out and the only option was to double the line and also electrify it. "Look at the number of times in a year KR goes off-track because of such derailments or landslides or other monsoon woes. A thorough analysis of the diesel wasted due to train diversions and the man-hours lost will probably show that the Rs10,000-15,000 crore required for doubling and electrification might be far less than what KR and the nation loses due to these disruptions," said an official.
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