A major disaster was averted after a fire broke out in the pantry car of the 12890 Yesvantpur-Tatanagar Express near Gollaprolu Railway Station in East Godavari district during the early hours on Tuesday.
The pantry car and the adjacent S-1 coach suffered extensive damage. Fortunately, there were no injuries as the fire was detected in time.
Enquiry ordered
South Central Railway (SCR) General Manager Gajanan Mallya and a team of officers rushed to the spot and inspected the burnt pantry car. Mr. Mallya ordered an enquiry into the mishap, SCR officials said in a press release.
At around 1.47 a.m. railway staff noticed fire emanating from the pantry car and stopped the train at Gollaprolu. The pantry car and the S-1 coach were detached and power supply was stopped to prevent spreading of the fire.
A fire tender from Gollaprolu rushed to the spot and doused the fire.As a precautionary measure, a railway medical relief van and accident relief van were dispatched to Gollaprolu from Rajamahendravaram. The affected train continued on its journey after a few hours with a coach attached at Visakhapatnam to accommodate the passengers of S-1 coach.
Four trains – 12704 Secunderabad-Howrah Falaknuma Express , 12246 Yeswantapur-Howrah Duronto Express, 17480 Tirupati-Puri Express, and the 12728 Hyderabad-Visakhapatnam Godavari Express were delayed due to the incident.
It took around six hours to restore the entire section in Vijayawada division to normalcy, railway authorities said.
Principal Chief Commercial Manager K. Shiva Prasad, Chief Safety Officer Gunashekaran, Chief Rolling Stock Engineer Sharma and Chief Electrical Service Engineer Raja Murugan and other railway officials from Vijayawada and Rajamahendravaram accompanied the GM.