Title - Pune-Ernakulam express derails near Ratnagiri

Stone boulders crash on track causing the engine to derail

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Passengers of the Pune-Ernakulam superfast express train(22150)had a miraculous escape when boulders crashed on the track between Ratnagiri and Adoli stations causing derailment of the engine in the wee hours on Thursday.Rail traffic on the stretch was disrupted following the mishap causing indefinite delay of several trains passing through the busy Konkan route.The engine of the speeding train was derailed as the driver applied emergency brakes after the heavy stone boulders fell over the train around 3 a.m., railway sources in Madgaon told The Hindu over phone.The train later returned to Ratnagiri where it will be halted till the lines are restored, he said.Many sleeping passengers were taken aback by the unexpected jerk they experienced after the mishap, M. Madhavan Nambiar, who boarded the train from Pune to Kasaragod, told The Hindu.While efforts were on at a war-footing to restore the train services on the highly saturated route, it was not immediately known as to when things would be normalised, railway sources here said, adding that there could be a delay of at least nine hours.

Due to the mishap, several trains originating from and bound to Kerala were forced to strand in various stations on the route, they said.