Five sleeper coaches of Falaknuma Express impacted in fire: SCR
The Hindu
Alert railway staff pulled the alarm chain and stopped the train when they noticed the fire, says SCR official
It was five coaches in all, which were impacted during the fire which engulfed the Train No. 12703 (Howrah –Secunderabad) Falaknuma Express between Bommaipalli–Pagidipalli section on Guntur division near Bibinagar railway station on Friday morning.
These were — coaches S2 to S6. On noticing the smoke at about 11.20 a.m. alert railway staff immediately pulled the alarm chain and brought the train to halt. The on-board staff immediately assisted the passengers in de-boarding the train.
All the passengers were safe and there were no casualties or any injuries. The stranded passengers were brought to the Secunderabad station by both the train as well as buses after detaching the burnt coaches from formation but they too were towed by the train to the Secunderabad station, SCR Chief Public Relations Officer Ch. Rakesh informed.
The train was scheduled to reach the Secuderabad railway station by 9.15 a.m. after doing a 1,545 km journey having started in Howrah at 7.25 a.m. on Thursday but was running late when the incident happened. Short circuit is suspected to have led to the fire.
A ‘help desk’ was set up at station to provide information about the incident and information on train operations etc. Passengers of two trains, which were cancelled due to the disruption in the section, were provided with food and buses for transport towards both Secunderabad and Guntur.
SCR General Manager Arun Kumar Jain rushed to the spot along with the team of higher officials, the accident relief train and medical relief train. He supervised the rescue operations at the spot and monitored the relief operations. Once the section was cleared of the affected coaches, it was restored for train movement in all aspects at 5.55 p.m, the CPRO added.
SCR has announced the following changes in running of trains following the fire incident of the Falaknuma Express on Friday morning:
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