Decoupling of Secundrabad-Howrah Falaknuma Express in Khurda Road under probe Railways

New Delhi, Apr 9 (PTI) The decoupling of two coaches of the Secundrabad-Howrah Falaknuma Express train between the Sumadevi and Mandasa railway stations in the Khurda Road division of the East Coast Railways (ECoR) on April 8 is under investigation, officials told PTI on Wednesday.
    "The broken couplings and screws have been sent to a laboratory for a meteorological test to find out the impact of atmospheric factors, deposition of carbons etc. on those, so that we can ascertain the root cause of the incident," a senior ECoR official said.
    A section of mechanical engineers said breaking or opening of couplings (joints between two coaches) during train operations often tend to show that coaches and wagons are not thoroughly maintained before the beginning of a journey.
    However, they added that each case needs to be examined and analysed separately.
    In the Falaknuma Express case, the coupling between the coaches A-1 and M-6 broke in such a way that those could not be fixed and replacing one of the two coaches was the only way out, the officials said.
    According to the officials, the incident took place at 7:09 am and the train was brought to the Mandasa station.
    "For safety checks, the A-1 coach was detached and the passengers were temporarily adjusted in other coaches. The train left the Mandasa Road station at 10:23 am," one of the ECoR officials said.
    "An additional AC 2-tier coach was attached at the Bhubaneswar station and the train departed from there at 3:20 pm. All passengers boarded smoothly and the train continued its journey," he added.
    The officials also said that vendors at key stations, including Ichhapuram and Brahmapur, were instructed to be prepared with sufficient drinking water and snacks at every coach.

(This story has not been edited by THE WEEK and is auto-generated from PTI)