Title - Train traffic hit by 3 hours, 2 wagons derail

NAGPUR: Two wagons of a goods train derailed near Dobi Nagar slums disrupting passenger train traffic by more than three hours on Howrah section on Monday evening.The accident occurred when the goods train was crossing the Itwari line. "As the wagons fell on the crossover, one of the wagons tilted on the up-line disrupting passenger train traffic," railway officials said.The mishap site is hardly 500-600 metres away from the Nagpur station towards Itwari-Kalamna end.A section of residents from Dobi Nagar, who witnessed the mishap, said the derailment took place around 4:30pm near the diamond crossing. "There was a loud noise as a few wagons dragged through a crossover point and derailed a few metres away from the spot," said Roshan Masurkar, who was near the tracks when the derailment took place.Even as the mishap site attracted curious onlookers from the slums, it also put the Central Railway officials including divisional railway manager (DRM) Brijesh Dixit and additional DRM Uday Borwankar and branch heads on their toes. All were at the spot in no time.The loaded wagon rake had started for Chhattisgarh from Nagpur yard around 4:15pm but derailed at the boundary of Central Railway and South East Central Railway (SECR). The two wagons that were derailed were loaded with salt.Barring seven wagons, including the two ill-fated ones, remaining wagons were shifted to Itwari and Nagpur yard. The mishap delayed at least a dozen mail-express trains coming and moving out of Nagpur. These trains included Gondia-Mumbai Vidarbha, Bilaspur-Eranakulam, Kolhapur-Gondia Maharashtra, Mumbai-Howrah Gitanjali, Howrah-Pune Azad Hind, Howrah-Ahmedabad and Howrah-Mumbai Mail.Sources said the mishap caused chaos at Nagpur station and also confusion among the passengers as train platforms were being changed frequently while making announcements.The officials kept their fingers crossed on the exact cause of mishap. "There can be various possibilities and nothing can be said at this moment. Our first priority is to restore train traffic," said ADRM Uday Borwankar. A probe has been ordered, he added. However, as usual engineering, mechanical and signalling department officials were ensuring that their department is not at fault. "It seems, the bogies had some problem. Otherwise why other bogies did not derail," said some officials.As the derailed wagons were fully loaded, it was taking time to bring the wagons back on the track. Borwankar said normalcy on the affected track will be restored by 9.30pm but it was not.