Smoke triggers panic in Indore-Jodhpur express

INDORE: Thick smoke emanating from moving Indore-Jodhpur train on Friday caused panic among hundreds of passengers, forcing the loco pilot to take a halt near Mahidpur Road railway station.

The 12465/Ranthambore SF Express departed from Indore railway station on its scheduled time at 6am for 910km journey to Jodhpur via Jaipur, Kota and Nagda junctions.

The train was scheduled to reach Chau Mahla railway station to enter Rajasthan at 10:14am when one of the wheels under D3 coach of the superfast train developed a technical fault near Mahidpur road railway station. Thick smoke started emanating from it creating panic among the passengers.

Identifying the problem, the vigilant loco pilot stopped the train and informed Kota railway division about it. Many passengers travelling in the train got off and ran to a safe distance with their belongings.

“It was a technical problem created due to jammed brakes,” Ratlam DRM RN Sunkar told TOI.

As it’s necessary to release brakes of the trains at regular interval and any technical fault in the process can lead to situation of brake jamming (in the moving train). “The loco pilot of Indore-Jodhpur train had released brakes at Nagda junction but due to some technical issue, the process could not be completed,” Sunkar said.

He said that when the train faced the situation of brake jamming, which is normal, a spark from it could have probably led to fire in leaves and other garbage, which was stuck near the wheel.

“As informed by Kota DRM, the situation was soon normalized and train left for its destination after checking all the safety measures” he said.