Chennai: Suburban carriage catches fire

Chennai: Panic prevailed at the Fort railway station in the late hours of Thursday when the high tension cabin of a Tambaram-bound suburban train caught fire. This is the second incident in the last three months of a EMU catching fire.

No casualties and injuries were reported and the fire was extinguished within 20 minutes. The incident did not cause any delays in suburban or inter-city express train schedules as it took place at a late hour and in a section of the line that is not on the main trunk routes.

“Preliminary examination showed that the fire broke out due to a short circuit in the cabin. However, the final report on the actual cause can be revealed only after detailed investigations,” said a senior official with the electrical department, Southern Railway.

The incident happened at 11:10 p.m. when smoke was seen emanating from the fourth bogey of Train no-40153 that arrived at platform No. 1 at Fort station.       

“The fire was extinguished in a short span of time as there was a fire extinguisher available near the high court and moreover there were just seven passengers in the whole train,” said Manoj Kumar, the Railway Protection Force (RPF) constable on duty at the station. The loco driver of the EMU train refused to comment on the incident.

The incident raises concerns among loco drivers and officials of the electrical and maintenance department on the regular ‘stabling’ and weekly maintenance work.
Maintenance officials who spoke to Deccan Chronicle complain that more technically skilled officials need to be inducted at each shed where the EMU trains are stationed for maintenance work.

“Currently there are just three technicians and a supervisor assigned for a shed who need to check at least 10 to 15 trains which is insufficient. The case is same in all the major sheds where these trains are stationed,” said maintenance official based in Tambaram.

However, no conclusive report was released by the railway officials on the reason behind the fire that broke out in the suburban train on the MRTS lane at Perungudi station in November last year.

Currently, daily inspection is carried out by two maintenance officials at all the yards and a weekly technical inspection is conducted at the three major sheds in Chennai division  - Tambaram, Velachery and Avadi.