Fire disrupts trains on Harbour line

Services on the Harbour line were disrupted for more than an hour on Sunday morning when a heap of garbage set afire under the Dockyard Road rail bridge led to the cables on the tracks catching fire.

The fire under the track bridge was noticed by the motorman of a Panvel-bound local train. The motorman informed the Central Railway (CR) officials present at the station. "They tried to douse the fire using extinguishers kept in the motorman's cabin and station master's office. However the fire continued to grow bigger and was burning our cables," said an official from CR. The fire was brought under control by the Mumbai Fire Brigade.

According to sources, prima facie it seems that the garbage burning right below the bridge led to the cables and its wires catching fire. The cables were right next to the tracks and close to the platform. No one was injured in the incident.

"We have ordered an inquiry into the incident to find out the reasons behind this fire," said SK Jain, Divisional Railway Manager (Mumbai), Central Railway.

Being a Sunday, while there was no mega block on the Harbour line, the fire led to repercussions in the schedule of services.

This is the third incident of fire in the past two months on Mumbai's rail network. A compartment of an empty 12-coach train, parked at the yard near Thane railway station caught fire in January. On February 2, another coach of a Thane-bound train caught fire at Dadar station. Passengers had to jump from the train after pulling the alarm chain.