The Hindu : Providential escape for rail passengers

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Jan 15, 2004

Kerala

Kerala

Providential escape for rail passengers

By Our Staff Reporter

COIMBATORE, JAN. 14. The passengers of the Tea Garden Express (Train number 6865) bound for Kochi from Tiruchi had a providential escape when the train hit a concrete sleeper slab placed on the track by miscreants between Coimbatore Railway Junction and Podanur in the wee hours of Wednesday.

According to police sources, the train, which left Coimbatore Junction at 1.15 a.m., had picked up speed when it hit the concrete slab placed on the tracks. The incident occurred about 30 metres from the Valankulam Bypass railway gate behind Masjid Colony between Podanur and Coimbatore Junctions.

The train pushed the concrete slab for over half-a-kilometre before coming to a halt.

The train left for Kochi after the motorman and guard removed the crushed pieces of concrete slab. A team of police personnel led by the DSP, Abdul Khader, the Inspector, M.R. Ramasamy, and Railway officials rushed to the scene.

Sources said the slab was actually meant for the adjacent metre gauge track and a number of concrete slabs, both old and unused, were lying along the track on either side.

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