BHOPAL: The movement of trains was badly affected in Bhopal division of West Central Railway after signalling system collapsed following a fire today in route relaying interlocking (RRI) cabin of Itarsi station - one of the biggest railway junctions in the country.
The movement of trains to major cities of the country via Itarsi, about 90 kms from here, has been hit hard, leaving the passengers high and dry. "Movement of 25 trains has been affected. Two or three trains have been terminated midway," Bhopal railway division Public Relation Officer I A Siddiqui told PTI. "We have diverted many trains through other routes," he said.
The signalling system was paralysed after fire broke out at the RRI this morning. Itarsi Assistant Station Master Ashish Dubey said that the trains were being cleared by manual signalling. Efforts are on to fix the problem. The system is likely to be restored by evening, he said. The fire broke out at the RRI due to a short-circuit. A part of RRI was to be replaced in 1998, but it was not done and this could have caused the short circuit, railway sources said.
Meanwhile, Bhopal Divisional Railway Manager Alok Kumar along with other senior officials rushed to the spot and were monitoring repair work to restore the signalling system. Kumar has constituted a three-member high level committee to probe the cause of fire. PRO Siddiqui said that railway has made arrangements for providing food and water to the passengers affected by the delay in trains. Counters have been put up to cancel and refund tickets of the passengers whose trains have been terminated.
A passenger named C K Naidu said that he was stuck at Budhni station for more than an hour. "I boarded the inter-city train from Habibganj station in Bhopal to Jabalpur at 5.30 AM. But I reached Budhni station at around 8 AM - the time when the train is supposed to reach Itarsi," he said. "After some time, the train left Budhni station. We were informed it is going to be terminated shortly. From Powarkheda station, where the train terminated, we were brought to Itarsi by another train," Naidu said.
Meanwhile, the train traffic between Itarsi and Nagpur on New Delhi-Chennai route was affected today due to a fire in relay interlocking section at Itarsi station in West Central Railway. Several trains were running behind schedule and some were running on diverted route.
Accordingly train number 22692 New Delhi-Bangalore Rajdhani express was running four hours late, 12792 Patna-Secunderabad was four hours late, 12970 Jaipur-Coimbatore was three hours late, 12622 New Delhi-Chennai Tamil Nadu express three hours late, 16360 Patna-Ernakulam five hours late and 22680 Vaishnodevi Katra-Yeshwantpur was three hours late, a release from Nagpur division of Central Railway said today. Similarly train number 12577 Darbhanga-Mysore, 122296 Patna-Bangalore, 12150 Patna-Pune were diverted via Katni, Shahdol, Durg and Nagpur. Train number 12971 Secunderabad-Patna will run via Nagpur, Gondia, Bilaspur and Katni between June 17 to 19.
Train number 22632 Bikaner-Chennai air-conditioned express leaving on June 21, 11204 Jaipur-Nagpur leaving on June 19, train number 12970 Jaipur-Coimbatore departing on June 23, 12696 Jaipur-Mysore leaving on June 22 and June 24 and train number 19713 Jaipur-Secunderabad leaving on June 20 will run via Nagda, Vadodara, Surat, Jalgaon, Bhusawal and Nagpur, the release added.