NEW DELHI: The derailment of a freight train's wagon in the Agra rail division on February 28 has led to a blame game among various railway departments over responsibilities.
However, all of them agreed that overheating of the axle bearing caused the incident.
The coal-loaded 59-wagon freight train, which originated from Odisha for its destination station in Ambala, derailed near Mania railway station, which comes under the Agra rail division.
"About 20 minutes before derailment, it crossed Dholpur while travelling from Jhansi to Agra on Saturday," an official said.
Though the derailment happened at the third (middle) line, it disrupted the smooth operation of many passenger and goods trains for several hours.
A preliminary probe held by a five-member team from the Agra division found that overheating of the axle bearing of one of the wagons led to the incident.
While four officials held the Coach and Wagon (C&W) Department responsible for negligence in maintenance, the officer representing the department on the probe panel blamed the Mechanical Department for the hot axle and the traffic as well as the Engineering Department for detention of several trains following the derailment.
He even questioned why the guard, gatemen, pointmen and deputy station superintendent (Dy SS) failed to notice smoke emanating from the defective wagon and report it in time to prevent the mishap.
The officer further blamed the Jhansi rail division for dereliction of duty, saying that the train was coming from Jhansi and such overheating and deterioration of the hot axle does not occur after a few kilometres of operations.
Describing the condition of the said wagon, he claimed that the train operated for over 30 to 40 km after the overheating started and yet no one along the way till the Mania railway station noticed or reported it.
The officer squarely blamed the Jhansi division staff for overlooking the "pathetic condition" of the wagon and severe damage to it, and suggested that the on-duty guard should inspect both sides of the train for smoke or unsafe train movement.
In response, the other panel members dismissed the claim that only the C&W Department has been held responsible and said that all level crossings between Dholpur and Mania fall on the opposite side, which may have prevented the gate staff from noticing the smoke.
They even disputed the C&W official's claim that the train had operated for over 30 to 40 km after the overheating of bearings started, and said that no evidence has been produced to substantiate the assertion.
The staff deployed enroute from Dholpur to Mania have stated in their written submissions that they did not notice smoke. The train guard said that he asked the loco pilot to stop the train the moment he noticed the smoke.
When the train stopped, he realised that one of the wagons had derailed, the guard said.
According to the probe report, the derailment caused a loss of over Rs 30 lakh to the Railways besides delays to several other passengers and goods trains.