After mishap, central railway to install chains on door panels

Following the freak railway accident on Monday morning, the Central Railway (CR) has rushed into the damage-control mode.

In a bid to curb such mishaps, it has decided to install chains on the metal frames which are referred to as door panels or protective shields. 

Three passengers travelling on the Udyan Express were injured when the protective shield of the high-tension compartment below the pantographs of a CST-bound fast train (a Siemens train) loosened and fell on the express train. The heavy metal cover, measuring 7-ft long and 7-ft wide, fell on the S-10 coach of the express train.

A 35-year-old woman commuter, sitting on the compartment’s doorsteps, and a four-year-old boy, who had rested his hand on the window, were hit by the steel seat. 

The train halted at Thane and the three injured — Sharanu Kumbhar, 4, Chandrabai Hadkamal, 35 and Farukh Sheikh, 30 — were taken to the Thane civil hospital and subsequently to Fortis Hospital in Mulund. Sheikh sustained minor injuries but Chandrabai lost her right arm and Sharanu lost his left hand.
The CR conducted checks on those parts of all high-tension compartments in its new Siemens AC-DC rakes.

“All the doors were checked for safety. As a precautionary measure, we will install chains on the door panels in order to hold the doors in event of them getting loose,” said VA Malegaonkar, chief public relations officer of CR.