Bandra-Dehradun Express fire kills nine, guts 3 coaches

Thursday, Jan 9, 2014, 7:49 IST | Agency: DNA

Imran Fazal 

 http://www.dnaindia.com/mumbai/report-bandra-dehradun-express-fire-kills-nine-guts-3-coaches-1947639

  

Fire starts in the power generator belt of S3 compartment of Bandra-Dehradun Express near Dahanu, spreads to two adjoining coaches, charring four passengers beyond recognition. Five others die of suffocation. Commissioner of Railway Safety orders inquiry into the tragedy.

WR rooftop traveller with burns taken to hospital on handcart With no ambulance on the spot and no railway cops seen at Mira Road, the man who suffered severe burn injuries was taken to hospital by fellow commuters

Ram Parmar mirrorfeedback@timesgroup.com TWEETS @_MumbaiMirror 

    With no ambulance available at Mira Road railway station on Thursday afternoon, a commuter who suffered severe burn injuries while travelling on the roof of a Western Railway local, had to be ferried to hospital on a handcart. 
    That the victim, Vinod Kamat, 40, wastakentoUmraoHospitalbyfellow commuters and not the railway police, smacks of apathy on the part of the Western Railway cops. 
    What’s more, it was the hospital authorities who informed the Government Railway Police, Vasai, about the incident. 
    It was the second mishap at Mira Road-Bhayandar within 24 hours. WhileKamatisrecoveringinhospital, the other accident claimed the life of a collegian, Ali Akbar Mohammed Husain, 20, who succumbed to injuries after hitting an electric pole near Bhayandar on Wednesday evening. 
    Around noon on Thursday, commuter Vinod Kamat — details of him are not immediately known — was travelling on the rooftop of a Virar bound local when he came in contact with the overhead high tension wires near Mira Road and suffered 60% burns. 
    With no ambulance on the spot and no railway personnel making any alternative arrangements for one, fellow passengers took Kamat on a handcart and admitted him to Umrao Hospital at Mira Road, where he is responding to treatment. 
    WR Sr PRO Nitin David, however, toldMirror,“ThestaffatMiraRoaddid try to contact Umrao Hospital, but the number was unreachable.” 
    And PRO Sunil Singh said, “We have made provisions for an NGO ambulance to be parked at all stations. Perhaps, at the time of the incident, the ambulance was on another call. I will have to check before I can make a comment.” 
    According to WR, at least six GRP constables and six RPF officers should havebeenondutyatMiraRoad.Atthe time of the incident, however, no uniformedpersonnelwasseenatthespot. AnofficialsaidtheVasaiGRPhaveregistered a case of an accident and are investigating. 
COLLEGIAN DIES AFTER HITTING 
ELECTRIC POLE AT BHAYANDAR In the earlier mishap, collegian Husain,aresidentofBhayandar(W),diedafterhittingapolewhileleaningoutof the train late Wednesday evening. His friend Paras Chheda, 20, a resident of Golden Nest area in Bhayandar (E), who tried to stop him from falling, alsosufferedinjuriesandisadmittedina Borivali hospital. 
    Husain and his friends, who are students of M K College, Borivali, had caught the 17:34 Virar local and were returning home. As the train neared Bhayandar, Husain hit a pole and fell tothetracks.Chhedawhotriedtosave him, lost his balance and also fell. 
    While Husain died on the spot, his other friends took Chheda to Borivali’s Kasturi Hospital where, according to Dr Rajeev Agrawal, he suffered head injuries and is serious.

Vinod Kamat suffered burns while travelling atop a local on Thursday afternoon

High drama at Dadar as passenger, ticket-checker fight it out on tracks

Aditya.Anand @timesgroup.com TWEETS @anandaditya 

    An unidentified commuter travelling in the handicapped compartment of a Borivali-bound local caused high drama while giving railway and police officials the slip and roughing up a TC on tracks at Dadar. WR spokesperson Nitin David told Mirror that the railways were conducting a drive against ticketless and irregulartravellersbetweenDadarandAndheri when the incident occurred on Thursday. 
According to officials, the commuter got off the handicapped compartmentandwhenstoppedbyaTC,jumped onto the tracks after the train had passed. He then leaped over the barrier between two tracks, and started to flee. 
    However, Vivek Rai, a TC who was on the opposite platform as part of the drive, saw what had happened. He jumped onto the tracks in hot pursuit, managing to get his hands on the commuter. But the latter turned on Rai, yanking at his shirt and raining blows on him. He then broke free by pushing Rai to the ground, and fled. Rai picked up stones and hurled them after him, but the unidentified passenger made good his escape. 
    According to officials, there were closeto30railwayofficialsandRailway Protection Force (RPF) staff on duty at 11:30 am when the incident occurred near platform No 5 of Dadar. They said they are viewing CCTV footage in a bid to identify the commuter. 
    Altogether, WR had 178 officials and 40 RPF constables at stations between Dadar and Andheri during the drive that lasted till 6 pm on Thursday. 
    “Over 1,800 cases of ticketless and irregular travel were detected till 6 pm and Rs 4 lakh collected as fines,” David said. Divisional Railway Manager (Mumbai Division) Shailendra Kumar said, “In October, 1,72,155 cases of ticketless/irregular travel were detected resulting in recovery of Rs 669.93 lakh.”

The commuter leaps on the tracks and TC Vivek Rai follows…

Rai bends down and picks up stones after the commuter breaks free…

Rai hurls the stones at the fleeing commuter

But the unidentified commuter manages to escape

As Western Line loses its hard-earned reputation of clock-work efficiency WR ready with Rs 40-cr plan to eliminate delays Bottlenecks have been identified at Borivali, Andheri and Dadar. Work to resolve these starts in month’s time

Virat A Singh virat.singh@timesgroup.com 

TWEETS @singhvirat246 

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    The Western Railway (WR) has lined up three ambitious projects to cut recent train delays that have made the everyday commute a nightmare for lakhs of Mumbaikars. 
    The suburban network, which until last year prided itself on its punctuality, has been facing 10 to 20-minute delays since March, when it increased the number of services. The delays result from a host of bottlenecks exposed by the increased frequency, from complex track alignment, narrow platforms to outdated signalling. 
    Now, railway officials have decided to solve the problems at three major stations — Borivali, Andheri and Dadar — as part of what they are calling one of WR’s biggest suburban overhauls. 
    The three projects will involve remodelling of tracks on the Dahisar-Borivali stretch and on Andheri section, and widening of a platform at Dadar, two major engineering challenges on a transit system cramped for space. WR BOTTLENECKS 
“We are finalising details of the projects that will help decongest the suburban network,” said Divisional Railway Manager Shailendra Kumar. “The work will be carried out over the next two years. The tender for Borivali has been issued.” 
    Among the city’s three train networks –– Main, Harbour andWestern—WR was considered the best, mainly because of its punctuality. That changed after it increased the number of daily train services from 1,051 to 1,305, and reduced the time between two train arrivals to three minutes from four. Now, 50 to 60 trains run behind schedule daily. 
    “Our main focus now is to improve the timings, so commuters are not inconvenienced,” Kumar said. The track remodelling projects planned for Borivali, Andheri and Dadar stations may begin as early as next month. The work will speed up movement of trains on these crucial sections. 
    “At Borivali, two south-bound trains currently cannot enter platform 5 and 6 simultaneously. One train has to wait,which has a knock-on effect on other services,”asenior WR official said. The problem is caused by the alignment of the crossover, the point where two sets of rails converge, before Borivali. “The shifting of this crossover towards Dahisar will speed up entry of trains at Borivali,” the official said. 
    A similar exercise will be carried out at Andheri and Dadar. “There are many crossovers near Andheri, which force north and south-bound trains to slow down,”hesaid.AtDadar, south-bound fast trains face delays because their designated platform, No 4, is narrow. Also, overcrowding at the platform forces trains to halt longer, delaying services. The platform will be widened after realignment of tracks.

TRAIN COLLISION AVERTED Motorman taken off duty after he jumps red signal

Somit Sen TNN 

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Mumbai: A motorman of a Western Railway train jumped a signal between Churchgate and Marine Lines stations on Saturday. Had the auxiliary warning system (AWS) not stopped the train immediately after the violation, it would have collided with another local that was switching tracks at that time. 
    The train left Churchgate at 10.31am and within two minutes, as it crossed from platform 4 to 3, the motorman, identified as Shaikh Ansar, breached signal 831 near the Marine Lines station. The local overshot the red light, coming in the way of an oncoming local, which 
was switching from platform 2 to 4. The auxiliary warning system (AWS), installed on trains as well as tracks, stopped the first local immediately, averting a collision that could have risked the lives of commuters on both trains. 
    While passengers said the train remained stuck on the tracks for 25 minutes till the signal was rectified, a railway spokesperson claimed the incident did not affect services. 
    The motorman has been taken off duty. Railway officials said on Sunday an inquiry was “still being conducted”. “We are trying to ascertain the reason behind the violation,” a senior official said. Sources said usually the motorman and the guard are both sent for blood tests to see if they were drunk. 
    Saying there have been very few incidents of trains passing a stop signal without officals’ nod, a WR official said they had “adequate measures to rule out collisions following signal jumping”. Under AWS, a motorman is alerted if a train breaches a signal. “Even if he fails to stop the local, the train automatically comes to a halt within 100m,” he said.

Wi-fi plan at CR suburban stns, on trains. As soon as a commuter with a smartphone enters a suburban station on CR, a pop-up will appear on his cell that will display the real-time status of trains (through trainenquiry.com

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—Manthan K Mehta 

Mumbai: Commuters can get wi-fi service at stations and in moving trains if railway authorities approve plans of a cellular firm, which wants to offer the technology by piggybacking on Central Railway’s initiative that allows real-time tracking of trains on smartphones. 
    A cellular firm has approached CR’s Mumbai divisional office with a proposal that will allow commuters to use wi-fi. An official explained, “As soon as a commuter with a smartphone enters a suburban station on CR, a pop-up will appear on his cell that will display the real-time status of trains (through trainenquiry.com). The commuter can use the service for say, five minutes, to track the position of trains. If he wants to use wi-fi for longer, he will have to pay for it.”

Family in stalled train takes shortcut, run over.“During peak hours, there are several long-distance trains which leave from CST and they occupy platforms. If an incoming passenger train is delayed and there’s non-availability of platforms, it may be moved to a loop line. Suburban trains would be given precedence over it. But under no circumstances should commuters get off and cross tracks.” GRP officials said that the Bhusawal PASSENGER is regularly SENT to the LOOP line where it HALTS FOR OVER AN HOUR, prompting many commuters to get off and cross the tracks despite it being ILLEGAL.

Nitasha Natu TNN  http://epaper.timesofindia.com/Default/Scripting/ArticleWin.asp?From=Archive&Source=Page&Skin=TOINEW&BaseHref=TOIM/2013/10/19&PageLabel=10&EntityId=Ar01000&ViewMode=HTML Mumbai: Three members of a family were killed on Thursday night after they got off a long-distance train and decided to take a shortcut across the tracks at Byculla. A suburban local knocked down Hussain Hawaldar (65), his wife Fatima (50) and daughter Zahra (22). The family had been walking adjacent to the railway tracks and not on them. GRP officials said the trio suffered massive head and facial injuries, which killed them on the spot. They did not sustain injuries on the rest of the body.      The Hawaldars were natives of Banswara in Rajasthan. They were visiting friends at Vasind in Maharashtra. Around 6.15pm on Thursday, they boarded the Bhusawal Passenger from Vasind station. The train terminates at CST. “At 8pm, the train reached Byculla and was halted on a loop line (which leaves a main line and then rejoins it later continuing in the same direction). Nearly 20 minutes later, when the train had not resumed its journey, Hussain, Fatima and Zahra decided to get off and walk down the short distance to Byculla where they had some work,” said senior inspector Surendra Deshmukh, CST GRP. Around 8.20pm, a CST-bound local hurtled in their direction. “The  trio craned their necks to get a better look. The motorman honked repeatedly on spotting the family. By the time he could halt, three bogies of the train had crossed the point where the trio stood. They were hit on their faces,” Deshmukh added.      The motorman got off and carried the bodies into the local. The train was detained for 20 minutes. At CST, he informed the GRP. Fatima was Hussain’s third wife. Hussain had two sons, Mohammad (40) and Murtuza (27) from his first wife who passed away. He then married a second time and had a daughter (Zahra). Hussain and Fatima were looking for a groom for Zahra.      On Friday, Mohammad and Murtuza flew to Mumbai and claimed the bodies. They are both employed at garment stores in Kuwait.      GRP officials said that the Bhusawal Passenger is regularly sent to the loop line where it halts for over an hour, prompting many commuters to get off and cross the tracks despite it being illegal.      A CR spokesperson said, “During peak hours, there are several long-distance trains which leave from CST and they occupy platforms. If an incoming passenger train is delayed and there’s non-availability of platforms, it may be moved to a loop line. Suburban trains would be given precedence over it. But under no circumstances should commuters get off and cross tracks.”  Youth killed A 22-year-old youth was killed while crossing the railway tracks near platform 2 of Ghatkopar station on Friday. The deceased hasn’t been identified yet. He was knocked down by a Thane-CST local around 12.30pm.