Rahul Jain, who presides over the CR's Mumbai division, detailed the emergency operations undertaken after the Kurla fire.
If Mumbai's lifeline has begun to inch towards some sense of normalcy since the fires broke out at relay cabins at Kurla and Vidyavihar, it owes it to 200 workmen who are employed in the mammoth task of restoration of the burnt signal systems.
Three senior railway officials of the Central Railway (CR) have been entrusted with clearing up the mess. In the last three days since the fire broke out, DNA spoke to them frequently to understand the challenges faced by them and the reason for such massive fire accidents.
Ever since the relay rooms at Kurla and Vidyavihar were engulfed in flames, officials working with the signalling and telecommunications (S&T) department of the CR have made those sooty chambers their second home. Of the more than 200 workmen, the majority — at least 125 — are from the S&T department.
"For a signalling engineer (working on restoration of system after fires), life is hell. We have been able to finish 50% of the work related to relaying of circuits. It will take another three days for us to complete 75% of work, and at least three more months to restore the system completely," said Madhurendra Sahai, senior divisional signalling engineer of the Mumbai division. The official says he had arrived at the Kurla cabin within 20 minutes of the accident. His presence of mind in using carbon dioxide to douse the fire has helped in quick restoration. He assured that services will run as per schedule from Saturday.
CR's chief signal and telecommunications engineer, KS Krishnakumar, suspected that the blazes had occurred due to leakage of current from the traction system cable that singed the nearby S&T cables.
Rahul Jain, who presides over the CR's Mumbai division, detailed the emergency operations undertaken after the Kurla fire. "The entire stretch from Sion to Vidyavihar was converted into one long section. From 1am to 3.15am on Tuesday, 12 points at Kurla and seven points at Vidyavihar were clamped together. The trains were manually piloted and by Wednesday afternoon, 24 signals were fixed."
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