KOCHI: Unidentified miscreants on Monday severed the optical cables of the railway signalling system near the Tripunithura railway station, disrupting the communication links between loco pilots and station masters. The rupturing of the cables was found out around 5.15 am. The disruption of communication links caused a delay of up to 30 minutes in the running time of trains.
“Officials at Tripunithura and the Ernakulam Junction(South) railway stations realised that the signalling system was down after the loco pilot of the Vanchinad Express could not communicate with them,” said a railway official. On investigation, the officials found that someone had cut the optical fibre cable of the signal system near the railway overbridge(ROB) close to Milma’s wastewater treatment plant.
According to a railway official, the old signalling systems are being replaced with optical fibre cables. “The work is in progress and a small portion of the cable remained exposed near the signal post close to the Milma wastewater treatment plant. We found that the miscreants slashed this exposed cable,” added the official.
The official said a major incident could be averted due to the diligence shown by the station authorities, who switched to the old system of sending the communication manually. “We managed to fix the problem by 8:15 am,” said the official. Meanwhile, the Railway Protection Force (RPF) officers arrived at the spot and conducted a preliminary investigation. “We are looking into the incident and the culprits will be nabbed soon. A case has been registered against unknown persons for destroying railway property,” said an RPF officer.