BANGALORE: Anxious faces were witnessed on Thursday afternoon at Bangalore City Railway Station as the trains were halted for around six hours after two trains brushed with each other resulting in derailment of eight bogies. Technical problem in the point signal during the track change was attributed as the reason. No casualties were reported though.
The incident took place at around 1.55 pm when the Jaipur Express left the railway station from platform no 4 and just after covering a furlong, the Udyan Express heading towards the shunting yard in the station for clearing, brushed with it.
Even though no loss of life was reported, the trains actually started moving at around 7:45 pm. Train no 2640, Brindavan Express, which was to leave the station at 2 pm, left at 7.45 pm.
A railway official said that tracking of trains is a long process. Since the city station came to a grinding halt, many trains were regulated at the Cantonment Railway Station itself and only after 8 pm did the movement of trains resume from the city station.
When asked to pin down the reason that caused the incident Railway Superintendent of Police H S Revanna said that: “Though we are not sure of the reason, but it looks like the problem was in the point signal, which is used for directing the tracks. Instead of directing the track towards the other side to enable parallel movement of trains, it was directed to the opposite direction, which did not leave any gap between the two trains and led to them brushing with each other.”