Two wagons of the Shalimar bound Kurla Express derailed at Kalamna Railway Station of South East Central Railway’s Nagpur Division on Tuesday. The derailment occurred around 2.10 pm when four wheels of parcel van and four of S-2 bogie came off the track. There was no casualty nor was there any injury in the mishap. As per railway officials, the derailment took place when the Express train was moving over the crossing in the Kalamna Yard. Incidentally only a month back, the Yard underwent major revamp during integration of third line when non-interlocking work was taken-up. As the speed of the train was low, the derailment did not result in any injuries nor any major damage to tracks. But derailment on crossing point is something Railways considers unsafe. The reason for derailment would be established post inquiry.

 

Train No 18029 left Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose Itwari station and just about 2 kms, later as it was crossing Kalamna station when the two bogies moved off the track. The parcel van was third from the engine and behind the S-2 bogie, 12th from the engine got derailed, said the railway release. On getting information, Control Room alerted Accident Relief Train (ART) which was dispatched from Itwari Railway Station. Divisional Railway Manager (DRM) Namita Tripathi along with Additional Divisional Railway Manager (ADRM) S P Chandrikapure, Sr DCM Dilip Singh and others also reached the spot.

 

ADRM G V Jagtap and other senior officials stayed put at Operations Control Room to monitor the situation and reroute the trains on the route. Sr Divisional Operations Manager Vishal Garg and operating team went about regulating the traffic as due to derailment the Kalamna Yard got blocked for movement of trains on Dn line. As rerailing operations started, the affected S-2 coach along with S-1 was taken out of the Kurla Express rake and two new bogies were attached and train was cleared for onward run. Though the derailment was minor, it still took nearly five hours to complete the restoration operations and finally at 7.30 pm, Train No 18029 left for its destination. 

 

 

The derailment disrupted the movement of long distance trains on one of the busiest rail route of Indian Railways. Train Nos. 12994, 12106, 20823, 11753 and 08744 were running several hours behind the schedule, leaving travellers in lurch. Even otherwise trains on SECR route runs quite late due to restrictions in view of ongoing development works and also because of congestion on tracks. So the derailment further added to problem as the long distance trains time table is going to remain disrupted for next two days atleast.