Ratlam/Kota: A fire broke out on a Rajdhani Express train heading from Thiruvananthapuram to New Delhi in Madhya Pradesh’s Ratlam district on Sunday morning, damaging two coaches and affecting traffic on the Mumbai-Delhi route for several hours, officials said. While no casualties were reported in the fire, a van carrying repair and other equipment to the site later overturned in the district, injuring five railway staffers, they said.
Schedules of more than 10 trains on the Mumbai-Delhi route were affected due to damage caused to the overhead equipment in the incident. Rail traffic was later restored after more than seven hours, even as an investigation was underway into the cause of the blaze.
The Thiruvananthapuram-Hazrat Nizamuddin Rajdhani Express (train no. 12431) had departed from Ratlam Junction at around 3.45 am.
The blaze erupted at 5.15 am in the B-1 coach of the train between Vikramgarh Alot and Lunirichha stations under the Kota division of the railways and also damaged the luggage-cum-guard van behind the coach, West Central Railway’s Chief Public Relation Officer Harshit Shrivastava told PTI over the phone.
The coach, carrying as many as 68 passengers, was evacuated within 15 minutes, and there were no casualties, officials said.
Railway authorities immediately switched off the overhead electric supply, and the fire was doused.
The affected coach was later detached from the rake, and the train headed for its onward journey at around 9.45 am, Shrivastava said.
It reached Kota at 1:15pm and left from the station at 2:30pm, officials said.
Arrangements were made to accommodate the passengers in other coaches for their onward journey up to Kota in Rajasthan, Kota railway PRO Ravindra Lakhara said.
Some trains were halted at different stations following the incident, and their movement was restored after more than seven hours, the officials said.
“The fire affected the movement of 13 passenger trains. The repair work of the overhead equipment on the (Delhi-bound) up line, on which the train caught fire, was completed around 1 pm. On the down Delhi-Mumbai line, it was done at 8.30 am,” Lakhara said.
Divisional Railway Manager Ajay Kumar Kalra was monitoring the situation. A relief train and a tower wagon were sent for rescue and restoration work.
In a related incident, five railway staffers were injured, one of them critically, as a van carrying essential equipment for overhead electric line repair overturned on its way to Alot from Shyamnagar in Ratlam when a cow suddenly strayed into the middle of the road, they said.
The injured persons were rushed to the hospital and were subsequently referred to Kota in Rajasthan, officials said.
Meanwhile, affected passengers were given an initial compensation of Rs 5000 at Kota station for ticket fare as well as luggage damage, the amount being disbursed in envelopes.
