Ceiling of AC coach in Matsyagandha Express falls down, MP reiterates demand for replacing rickety ICF coaches with LHB rake

Udupi-Chikkamagaluru MP Kota Srinivas Poojary reiterates demand for replacing rickety ICF coaches of the daily train with LHB rake.

Close on the heels of Udupi-Chikkamagaluru MP Kota Srinivas Poojary urging the Railway Ministry to replace the rickety coaches of Mangaluru Central-Mumbai LTT Matsyagandha Express, the ceiling of an AC coach of the train fell. A passenger managed to duck in time and avoided getting hurt.

According to reports, Chinmay Kole was travelling on Train No. 12619 Mumbai LTT-Mangaluru Central Matsyagandha Express in B1 3-tier AC coach. En-route, he got down at Chiplun to buy snacks. When he was re-entering the coach, the ceiling fell down. He ducked and avoided getting hurt, Mr. Kole said.

The passenger demanded that Indian Railways replace the 26 year-old ICF rake of the Matsyagandha Express with brand new Linke Hofmann Busch (LHB) coaches.

Existing coaches have become old and they lacked proper maintenance. The Matsyagandha Express has been the lifeline of the Konkan region in Maharashtra and coastal Karnataka serving thousands of tourists, traders, and other categories of passengers.

Following this incident, Mr. Poojary again wrote to Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw on August 19 drawing his attention the AC coach ceiling collapse. The MP reiterated the demand for immediate replacement of the old ICF coaches.

The incident could have resulted in severe harm if the passenger had been a pregnant woman, or an elderly person, or a child. Besides the recent incident, there have been numerous complaints by passengers regarding such incidents resulting out of poor maintenance and ageing of coaches.

Mr. Poojary .complained that despite repeated requests by elected representatives and passengers, the Southern Railway has been deferring replacement of coaches, citing ‘phased replacement’, for more than five years. While SR has upgraded most of the weekly trains passing through Konkan Railway to LHB rakes, it has failed to do the same for the Matsyagandha Express, which is a daily train.