The failure of the Railways to revive monsoon patrolling despite heavy rain in the south over the last few days has led to a number of derailments and accident scares.Railway officials have blamed the latest derailment on the Andhra Pradesh irrigation department, saying it had not alerted them about the possibility of floods.The Delta Fast passenger train which runs between Repalle and Secunderabad derailed in Nalgonda after the tracks were washed away because of a suspected breach in a reservoir.There is apparently little coordination among various railway zones on the matter; compounding the problem is a clause in the railway manual which states that monsoon patrolling is to be done only till October 15. "With erratic rains this time, the South Central Railway failed to revive monsoon patrolling, which entails a patrol man personally checking an area of 7 to 10 km for any possible breaches," a railway official said. "In the absence of patrolling, it is difficult to prevent a mishap because once the track is covered with water, a breach occurs within one to two hours," he added.A major accident was averted on the Bangalore-Jolarpettai section less than a week ago. Hundreds of passengers aboard the Kanyakumari Express had a miraculous escape when three bogies of the train derailed on a bridge on a stream near Kamasundram early last Monday. Luckily, the bogies did not fall into the stream.The approach to the bridge had been washed away with the track left hanging in mid-air. "Since there were no casualties that is why probably no lessons were learnt from it," a senior railway official said.An official in the safety directorate shifted blame away from the railways, saying: "It is the job of the rain gauging department to forecast and coordinate with the railways. In this case, the railways had no information. There are so many irrigation dams now with no maintenance.’’Patrol saveAn example of how monsoon patrolling can prevent tragedies is when a Western Railway patrolman detected some water on the track and ran to the nearest Kafu station to ask the station master not to allow any trains till he returned. This was in July-end. However, before he could return, the Raigarh dam broke and the bank was washed away. The patrolman could not return while Rajdhani Express waited at Kafu station. It was only after water reached the station that the officials realised the gravity of the situation. —ENS
