BENGALURU: In a major derailment that occurred on Sunday night, December 5, 2021, on the Main Line between Dodaballapur and Bengaluru, all the eight wheels of two empty wagons of a modified goods train carrying spare parts for tractors to Guwahati went off track. There was substantial impact to the railway tracks with nearly 100 metres of it damaged, said officials at the spot. Trains had to run only on one line along this section for nearly 23 hours which caused delays for all.
The mishap occurred at 7.33 pm to a 26-wagon New Modified Goods (NMG) rake (trains modified to carry cars and tractors) when it entered the Main Line from the Loop Line coming from the yard in Dodaballapur, about 30 kms from Bengaluru, said an official.
According to officials at the spot, wheels on the right side of Wagons 9 and 10 came off the rails and the wheels coupled to them at the other end landed on the middle of the tracks. “The train has 26 wagons and it was half-loaded with tractor tillers. These two wagons were empty but the impact was substantial with nearly 100 metres of track damaged heavily. The sleepers, railing and the signal fittings below the rails too were damaged,” said a senior official.
An Accident Relief Van reached the spot by 9.15 pm. “There was no delay on our part but usually between 30 to 40 metres of tracks get damaged in derailments. The length of track damaged was substantial and it happened on two lines. So it took us considerable time to restore it,” he said.
Top railway officials tried to play down the incident completely describing it as “a minor derailment”
and emphasising repeatedly that no trains were cancelled. Chief Public Relations Officer, South Western Railway, Aneesh Hegde too reiterated the same. “Two empty wagons (9th and 10th) derailed. Since a point on Main Line was involved, Down line was affected and trains have been handled temporarily with a single line working. Traffic on the line was restored by 6.15 pm on Monday and trains have started running on both the railway lines,” he said.
Four trains - 3 UP trains and one DOWN train - suffered detentions and were delayed, he said. Specifying details, Hegde said, the Yesvantpur-Bidar Express (No.16571) was delayed by 45 minutes, KSR Bengaluru-New Delhi (Train no. 12627) by 90 mins and KSR Bengaluru-Hazrat Nizammudin (Train no. 22691) by 5 mins. Kurla Express from Lokamanya Tilak Terminus to Coimbatore (Train no.11013) was detained at Gauribidanur and it got delayed by an hour and 45 minutes. As a cascading effect and with trains running only on one line, trains suffered delays all of Monday too.
Railway officials said investigations were on to ascertain the reasons for the derailment. The extent of damage will be assessed after that, they said.