RailEnquiry

Two people were burnt to death and seven others injured when a general coach of Falaknuma Express, going from Hyderabad to Solapur, caught fire on Tuesday.

The fire was noticed about 1.45 pm. Although there were at least 15 passengers on board, most of them jumped to safety when the fire was noticed. The fire brigade was rushed to the spot and the fire was extinguished by 2.15 pm.

As the train was at the Gulbarga station, a major disaster was averted. The South Central railways has ordered an inquiry into the incident. The fire is believed to have happened because of the presence of inflammable material in the coach. While some reports say that there was kerosene in the coach, others say that there were crackers in it.

The incident has brought to light the lack of adequate security checks for those traveling in trains. According to AK Agarwal, divisional railway manager of the Bangalore division of South Western Railways, the problem lies in the sheer number of people who use trains.

“We do have checking systems and surprise inspections using sniffer dogs. Despite this, we are unable to make sure that inflammable materials are not carried into trains. We cannot check 100% of the commuters,” he said.

To make the security process more strict and efficient, the Bangalore division of the SWR will be getting luggage scanners. “These will be put up at Yeshwanthpur railway station and the City Railway station, initially,” he said.