More than 700 passengers on the Madgaon-Dadar Jan Shatabdi Express had a narrow escape on Tuesday night as the train halted just 30 metres short of a heavy obstacle¡ªa 380kg piece of rail, over seven metres long, kept on the train's path near Diva station. The picture of the piece of rail lying on the tracks has gone viral on social media.
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Though the train was moving at 15kmph, had it hit the rail, it may have derailed, said a railway official. "Of course, had the train hit the rail at speed, the result would be a disaster."
The possibility of sabotage cannot be ruled out, said Central Railway's general manager D K Sharma. "It looks like it was meticulously executed. Some people placed the heavy rail within 17 minutes of two trains passing through the spot."
The rail was spotted by the diesel locomotive's drivers¡ªpilot Harendra Kumar, his assistant Harish Chinchole¡ªand loco inspector N K Yadav. Chinchole and Kumar hit the brakes in the nick of time. "A catastrophe has been averted," Sharma said.
The railway police are probing the terror angle as a couple of recent derailments in north India pointed to the role of terrorists. Also, Tuesday's incident came just two days before Republic Day. The entire railway machinery, including the RPF and the GRP, is on high alert.
AFP/representational image
GRP commissioner Niket Kaushik said an offence has been registered under the Indian Railways Act's section 150-A (attempting to wreck a train by putting an obstacle in its way). "The intention was to cause massive damage," he said.
The police are tracking records of all calls made on mobile phones in the area.
The possibility of the involvement of a rail pilfering group is also being looked into. An official said that before the Jan Shatabdi, a Karjat-CST fast local had passed the spot (700 m from Diva station) at 10.23pm. "It did not come across any obstacle. Perhaps the miscreants were waiting for the Jan Shatabdi, coming from Goa. They had only 17 minutes to place the heavy rail on the track as the Goa train halted at 10:40pm," said an official.
Sharma said the GRP suspects that at least four men were involved as otherwise it would be difficult to lift a 380kg object. RPF sources said a couple of eyewitnesses came forward on Wednesday and said that around 10:30pm on Tuesday they were on a local train running in the opposite direction, when they spotted four or five men hanging around the spot where the rail was eventually kept.
In normal circumstances, when a piece of metal touches both rails of a track, a circuit gets activated and the signal turns red. To avert this, a lot of soil was applied on the rail, said a source.
The rail was removed by railway staff with the help of the public. CR's chief security commissioner, Atul Srivastava, said there's no habitation close to the spot, making it easy for miscreants to have placed the rail.