Daijiworld Media Network - Mangaluru (SP)
Mangaluru, Dec 22: In an incident which occurred here, two trains moving in opposite directions, which were on collision course, were stopped on the tracks before the situation went out of hand by a station master whose presence of mind averted loss of lives and property to the department of railways. The incident occurred on Sunday December 20 evening.
City Junction-Mumbai CST super-fast train and New Delhi (Nizamuddin)-Thiruvananthapuram super fast train would have plowed into each other somewhere between Thokur and Padil railway stations. The Mumbai train had left city Junction station here, whereas the train to Thiruvananthapuram had left Thokur station. Station master of Padil station passed on urgent messages to the pilots of the two trains and made them to stop the trains midway.
Earlier to this, a request was sent to Padil station for green signal to CST train from Mangalore Junction station. Padil station official gave line clearance after contacting Thokur station. But at that time the train needed to be attached with six more compartments. After this work was completed, the train came across some technical snags. As the train coming from Nizamuddin sought signal in the meanwhile, the line clear signal of CST train was cancelled and Nizamuddin train was allowed to move ahead from the direction of Thokur. The officials at Padil station could not convey to city Junction station the fact that line clearance to Mumbai train had been cancelled. Therefore, CST train moved ahead on the basis of clearance obtained sometime back. Padil station master, who found to his dismay that two trains moving on opposite directions were on the same track, conveyed information to the two pilots over walkie-talkie facility, after which the trains were stopped.
While the signal of the city Junction station falls under the jurisdiction of southern railway, Thokur falls under Konkan Railway Corporation. Train movement on this sector was disrupted for about 90 minutes on account of this incident.