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Faulty tracks may have led to local train derailment: WR

This is the fifth derailment on Indian Railways in the past one week

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The derailed train near Mahim on Friday
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A day after the derailment of five coaches near Mahim, the authorities are suspecting engineering fault on tracks and overhead cables (OHE) which could have led to the derailment.

The Commissioner of Railway Safety (Western Circle), Sushil Chandra, on Saturday, inspected the site along with officials from Western and Central Railways. This is the fifth derailment on Indian Railways in the past one week.

On Saturday, the inspection went on for nearly two hours as the authorities checked the tracks and the crossover spot where the train derailed. "Prima facie, it seems as if there was an issue with the track and its curvature," said a WR official.

The CSMT-Andheri local train was supposed to halt on Harbour line's platform five but there were issues with the OHE and power supply. The motorman was then asked to reverse and take it to platform six and then terminate it and take it to the yard.

However, while reversing, five coaches of the train, close to the crossover, derailed. Sources explained that usually, the trains come at a speed of around 15-20kmph on that route from King's Circle station towards Mahim.

"During inspection, we found that the curvature of tracks is around 8 degrees but then the gap between two rail lines has a gap of 5 meters or so. A curvature of at least 9.5 degrees would have been ideal. This could be one of the primary reasons behind the derailment," said another official present at the inspection. Senior officials said that this stretch was part of the yard remodelling done by Mumbai Rail Vikas Corporation (MRVC). Earlier this April, the WR authorities took over its maintenance, according to officials, on grounds that the MRVC would rectify the engineering faults. The officials from MRVC were also present at the CRS inspection on Saturday. Sources in WR said that they had informed MRVC about the faulty track.

At present, the coaches which were derailed at 9.55 am on Friday, are tugged onto a locomotive and standing next to Mahim yard. These were rerailed around 4 pm while the line was made active for traffic at around 7.30 pm. Six passengers were injured in the accident and were given a total ex-gratia amount of Rs 50,000.

...& ANALYSIS

  • Engineering faults and poor maintenance practise are the main reasons for such accidents. The Railways first needs to fill 1.50 lakh vacant posts related to various safety works.
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