Deccan Queen engine derails; lucky escape for all passengers

PUNE, Aug 8: Providence had an upper hand for passengers aboard the Mumbai-bound Deccan Queen this morning when the train's locomotive en...

PUNE, Aug 8: Providence had an upper hand for passengers aboard the Mumbai-bound Deccan Queen this morning when the train8217;s locomotive engine derailed between Monkey Hill and Nagnath Cabin in the rain-hit Bor ghat section. The derailment occurred due to a massive landslide 8211; the debris of which had occupied a major chunk of the railway track.

The engine of the train dashed against the debris between Kilometer No 115/1 and 115/2 on the Up line around 8.45. Three wheels of the engine jumped the track due to the impact of the dash.

Though nobody was injured, the passengers were stranded for as many eight hours. They were later accommodated in the Pune-Karjat passenger train.

Braving the incessant rain, nearly 300 passengers trekked back to Monkey Hill 8211; a distance of about eight kilometers.

Shyam Sahani, a social worker from Pune Cantonment area who was travelling to Mumbai said: 8220;I made many calls on my mobile to ask for help, but when I realised it would take very long, I along with others decided to walk back to Monkey Hill. From there we returned by Udyan Express. We had to borrow lanterns from the railway staff to walk through the tunnels. It took nearly two hours for us to reach Monkey Hill.8221;

Sahani said that the idea to walk back was mooted by a few ladies from the second-class compartment behind the engine, who were the first to see the extent of damage and realise that they would be stranded for very long.

However, a large number of passengers who stayed put had to wait at the Monkey Hill railway station for nearly five hours, till the railway authorities accommodated them in the Pune-Karjat passenger.

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According to the GRP officials, they had to take Mumbai-bound local trains after the passenger train reached the Karjat railway station only around 4.50 pm.

The Nagnath Line remained closed for traffic till late evening as the work of shifting the derailed engine and clearing the track went on. However, the rail traffic on Mumbai-Pune section of Central Railways by and large remained unaffected, thanks to the other two lines in the ghat section.

The landslide, which caused the mishap, had taken place sometime early this morning. However, the Railways, the Railway Protection Force RPF and the General Railway Police GRP could not receive information about it in time due to lack of communication network in the ghat section, the GRP officials in Pune said.

According to police sub-inspector Dattatraya Wabale from the GRP control room in Pune, the initial tip off about the mishap came only when some of the train passengers returned to the Monkey Hills railway station.

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The GRP officials in Pune came to know about the incident around 10 am after the control room of RPF in Mumbai sent a wireless message to them saying that the Deccan Queen had met with an accident in the ghat section.

Alarmed, the GRP control room in Pune asked the in-charge of the Karjat railway police station to visit the spot and verify the information. Rescue arrangements were made after the GRP personnel from Karjat returned and reported the incident to the GRP control room in Pune, he added.

A breakdown van and heavy machinery to shift the derailed engine were summoned from Kalyan and Karjat. Superintendent of railway police Madhavrao Karve is camping at the site to supervise the rescue work.

When contacted, the Divisional Traffic Manager of Central Railways Kamal Jain said 8220;he had no details because the Nagnath Line was under the Mumbai Railway Division.8221;