It was five coaches in all, which were impacted during the fire which engulfed Train No. 12703 (Howrah –Secunderabad) Falaknuma Express between Bommaipalli–Pagidipalli section on Guntur division near Bibinagar railway station on Friday morning.
These were — coaches S2 to S6. On noticing the smoke at about 11.20 a.m. alert railway staff immediately pulled the alarm chain and brought the train to halt. The on-board staff immediately assisted the passengers in de-boarding the train.
All the passengers were safe and there were no casualties or any injuries. The stranded passengers were brought to the Secunderabad station by both the train as well as buses after detaching the burnt coaches from formation but they too were towed by the train to the Secunderabad station, SCR Chief Public Relations Officer Ch. Rakesh informed.
The train was scheduled to reach the Secuderabad railway station by 9.15 a.m. after doing a 1,545 km journey having started in Howrah at 7.25 a.m. on Thursday but was running late when the incident happened. Short circuit is suspected to have led to the fire.
A ‘help desk’ was set up at station to provide information about the incident and information on train operations etc. Passengers of two trains, which were cancelled due to the disruption in the section, were provided with food and buses for transport towards both Secunderabad and Guntur.
SCR General Manager Arun Kumar Jain rushed to the spot along with the team of higher officials, the accident relief train and medical relief train. He supervised the rescue operations at the spot and monitored the relief operations. Once the section was cleared of the affected coaches, it was restored for train movement in all aspects at 5.55 p.m, the CPRO added.
Services disrupted
SCR has announced the following changes in running of trains following the fire incident of the Falaknuma Express on Friday morning:
Train No.17645 Secunderabad-Repalle and Train No. 17064 Secunderabad-Manmad trains have been cancelled as also Train No.17063 Manmad–Secunderabad on Saturday, while Train No. 17229 Thiruvananthapuram-Secunderabad has been partially cancelled between Ramannapet-Secunderabad. Train No 17646 Repalle-Secunderabad train too has been partially cancelled between Nadikudi-Secunderabad.
Train No.17230 Secunderabad-Thiruvanthapuram express as well as Train No. 12704 Secunderabad-Howrah will be diverted to run via Kazipet-Vijayawada on Friday. Train No.12805 Visakhapatnam-Lingampally and Train No.17231 Narsapur-Nagarsol express will be diverted via Vijayawada-Kazipet.
