A day after the fire on Mumbai-Delhi Rajdhani Express, the Railways today said an advanced fire alarm system would be installed on trains once its trial was over and ordered thorough recheck of pantry cars on 290 trains.
“Trial of the advanced fire alarm system is already on in the Bhubaneswar Rajdhani train and the system would be replicated on other trains once the trial is over,” said a senior Railway Ministry official.
Yesterday's fire started in the Mumbai-Delhi Rajdhani pantry car and rapidly spread to three adjoining coaches near Thuriya station in Ratlam district in Madhya Pradesh.
Though the exact cause of the fire is yet to be ascertained, preliminary investigation suggested short circuit in the AC pantry car caused the blaze.
All AC and non-AC pantry cars have to be rechecked fully, including their electrical fittings, maintenance system, fire extinguishers and safety related measures adopted, said a senior Railway Ministry official.
Rajdhani trains are now being provided with lightweight LHB coaches. Designed with German technology, the LHB coaches have fire retardant quality. “The fire did not spread fast due to the LHB coaches,” said the official, adding, “Had it not been LHB then fire could have spread much faster.”
The materials used for flooring, seating arrangement, curtains and vestibules in the LHB coaches are all fire retardants.
Four coaches, including the pantry car of the Mumbai-Delhi Rajdhani, were completely gutted. However, no one was injured in the fire.
It was the alertness and prompt action of nine pantry staffers that helped save lives of hundreds of passengers on board the burning train yesterday, a feat for which the Railways has rewarded them with a sum of Rs 3,000 collectively.
As the blaze started from the pantry car at 2.20 am and was about to spread to adjoining coaches, the staff of Indian Railways Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC) pulled the chain, alerted the sleeping passengers in the other coaches and helped them get off the train, said railway officials.
They also delinked the burning coaches from rest of the train which helped avert a major disaster.
The fire spread to the three coaches but nobody was injured as the passengers had got off by then, they said. The Railways rewarded the nine staffers of the IRCTC with Rs 3,000 as a “token gesture,” Mr Sanjay Jain, Group General Manager of IRCTC told PTI. There were 30 pantry staffers on the train at that time.
At the same time, the Railways gave Rs 10.6 lakh to 212 passengers (Rs 5,000 a passenger) as ex-gratia for the inconvenience and loss of baggage.
Railways sought to play down the issue, with a senior official saying the “token” reward was given at the level of Divisional Railways Manager and a higher award cannot be announced pending inquiry into the incident. “The cause of the fire in the pantry car is yet to be ascertained,” the official said.