The Hindu : National : Train services resume on Konkan Railway

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Friday, Jun 18, 2004

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National

Train services resume on Konkan Railway

By Our Special Correspondent

MUMBAI, JUNE 17. About 33 hours after the Matsyagandha Express accident, train services on the coastal Konkan Railway resumed today after railway staff and workers had removed the mangled bogies and repaired the damaged track.

The Delhi-Ernakulam Mangla Express passed the Ambivali bridge at a speed of 10 kph at 2.40 p.m.

Earlier a pilot engine had crossed the bridge to test the tracks, followed by a dummy train and a goods train after the authorities issued the track clearance certificate.

But the Konkan Railway authorities have now restricted the train speed to 75 km per hour between Veer and Vaibhavwadi, a stretch of 237 km vulnerable to landslips because of its peculiar hilly terrain, and decided to run a pilot engine ahead of each passenger train.

The Matsyagandha Express was reportedly running at 90 kph when it hit a boulder that had rolled on to the track, derailed and nosedived from the bridge. The train's locomotive and first three bogies had fallen down from the bridge, killing 19 passengers and injuring over a hundred.

The managing director of the Konkan Railway, B. Rajaram, told a press conference in Navi Mumbai this evening that all rock cutting slopes more than five-metre high along the tracks would be covered with safety net and slopes of lesser height would be flattened out adequately to remain stable in rainy conditions.

The rock cutting at Ambivali had the safety net at eight-metre height and the boulder that caused the accident had loosened from a lower rock.

Mr. Rajaram said the geology and weather of the coastal Konkan region was unique because of its lateritic soil, non-uniform strata, seismic activity, heavy rainfall and high velocity winds, affecting all forms of transportation. He said after the previous year's accident, the railway had completed a number of safety works at a cost of Rs. 61crores.

He said that boulder nets of high and medium strengths were put to cover 4.3 lakh square metres. About 19,000 `inclinometer' devices were installed at different rock cuttings to monitor variations in the slopes and trigger alert systems of flashing red lights and hooters.

Interestingly, the accident occurred when the Konkan Railway was about to become the first railway route in the world to be covered by anti-collision device network. The high-tech system not only warned the loco driver of the danger ahead but also automatically regulated the train speed.

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