CR not responsible for accidents

After a spate of accidents last month, following a fire at Kurla station that caused large-scale chaos among passengers on the Central Railway, officials are still to take responsibility for the incident.

An accident that occurred last month between Nahur and Mulund stations, which was caused due to a loose screw on the maintenance platform pole and enquired about the Kurla fire, the railway passenger association wrote a letter to railway officials demanding an explanation, but the CR has not yet replied.

Commuters faced chaos on April 18 after the Kurla cabin fire Pic/ Sameer Markande

Citing the example of April 19, when a faulty maintenance platform at Nahur station came loose due to the vibrations from passing trains and injured commuters, Madhu Kotian, President, Mumbai Rail Pravasi Sangh, said, "This clearly indicates that maintenance and repairs during daily checks and the mega blocks is a mere routine formality without any serious attempt to keep a check on untoward incidents."

She also pointed out that there was a mega block on the entire section between Kurla and Thane a few days before the incident. "It was the railway's ignorance since they have not checked all the equipment including the signal repairing board properly."

With regard to the fire, she said, "If it would have been checked and repaired at that time there would have been no short circuit resulting in the fire."

D C Godbole, vice president of Mumbai Rail Pravasi Sangh said, "It appears officials do not perform thorough, prescribed checks during the mega blocks."

According to a statement made by the railway authorities, the fire was attributed to a short circuit in the signal cabin. "We request the railway ministry to examine the matter and take remedial measures to reduce the problems of commuters," Kotian said.

A K Singh, PRO, CR said, "In both the incidents, there was no ignorance on the part of the railways and we tried our level best to sort out the problems as soon as possible." u00a0