BENGALURU: Nearly 600 passengers on board a passenger train heading from Bangarpet to Krantivira Sangolli Rayanna (Bengaluru City) railway station had a narrow escape when one of the coaches caught fire due to a short circuit in electrical equipment beneath it. No one was hurt or injured in the fire followed by billowing thick smoke, which took nearly 20 minutes to douse.
Passengers had to alight and take the next train along this direction. Three succeeding trains in this direction had a delayed run. According to a senior railway official, Train No. 76508 left Bangarpet at 3.30 pm and sparks of fire were noticed by the guard standing at the rear of the train at 5.38 pm as soon as the train crossed Hoodi Halt station.
“He noticed fire sparks in the last coach and immediately alerted the loco-pilot, who stopped the train. The fire was only minor but thick billowing smoke spread all around. The guard as well as the Government Railway Police and the Railway Protection Force tried to put it out but could not. Finally, fire engines which were also called succeeded in clearing the train of all the smoke,” said a reliable source. The guard deserves all the praise, he added. “If he had not spotted the problem immediately, it would have spread to all other coaches rapidly,” he explained.
The train was forced to halt here for 73 minutes before it was moved elsewhere. Thilagavathy, who was travelling on the train behind (KGF-Krishnarajpuram) which was stopped at Hoodi Halt along with two other women could see the smoke billowing out of it. “When we asked a railway staffer at the station, he said that it will take at least two hours for our train to leave as the Bangarpet Passenger had a problem. So we alighted and took an auto from Hoodi to T Narasipura to reach out destination,” he told The New Indian Express.
Another passenger, Shankar N said, “I too was travelling in the KGF train and saw much smoke. So, I decided to leave my train and took an Ola to Bangalore.” According to Divisional Railway Manager Ashok Kumar Varma, three succeeding trains were delayed as a consequence. Another railway official said The Arakkonam Passenger, the Patna-SBC Express and the KGF-KR Puram trains had a delayed run by an hour to 2.5 hours. Elaborating on the technical details, another source said that a short circuit had developed in a portion of the battery under the train called Rectifier. This gave rise to the fire sparks. The inquiry is on into the incident.