RailEnquiry

Jaipur: The driver of Jodhpur-Varanasi Marudhar Express showed great presence of mind and averted a major accident on the tracks near Malviya Nagar on Monday. He stopped the train on noticing that the tracks ahead were damaged.    The train had departed at 4 pm from Jaipur Junction and was heading towards Malviya Nagar when its driver Santosh Kumar felt that there was some defect in the tracks, and he immediately brought the train to a halt. He found that there was a bend in the tracks near Nandpuri underpass. He informed the officials at Jaipur Junction about it. The officials of the engineering wing reached the spot and after inspection, allowed the train to pass at 5 km/hour speed. But by then, the train had already got late by almost one hour. Thereafter, the repair work on the track was started.    As if this was not enough, the Delhi-bound Pooja Express was soon seen coming on the same track while the repair work was going on. The workers stopped the train by waving a red cloth. Luckily, the train stopped 100 metres from the spot. This train too remained halted for about half-an-hour.   All this led to confusion at Jaipur Junction and several trains including New Delhi-bound Shatabdi and Ajmer-Agra Fort Express had to be halted there for around 45 minutes. In all, the rail traffic was disrupted for almost two hours.   The NWR officials have ordered an inquiry into the matter. DRM Virendra Kumar said, “The driver had expressed doubts over the tracks and we have ordered an inquiry.” Sources said that the tracks could have damaged during the maintenance work on the tracks, however, the exact reason would be known only after the inquiry is over.    The maintenance work by machines is underway on this section for the last few days and the drivers have been ordered to drive trains at slow speed.