Title - Cabin fire: Probe blames signalling and electrical departments

MUMBAI: A three-member committee appointed by Central Railway to probe last month's fire in signalling cabins at Kurla and Vidyavihar has blamed the signalling and electrical departments for the incident.

The panel conducted by officials of the safety, electrical and signaling department submitted its report to CR general manager Subodh Jain on Tuesday.

A source said, "While the panel has primarily blamed the signaling and telecommunication department for the incident, it has also pointed the finger at the electrical department for not laying the cable one meter below the ground at the site as per the prescribed norm."

According to the probe report, the signaling and telecom department finished laying cable at the site around 5pm on April 17.

An electrical cable was damaged because of the digging carried out by the signaling and telecommunication department to lay cables. This resulted in a short circuit and subsequent fire in Kurla and Vidyavihar. The electrical department has been held responsible as it had not laid the cable one meter below the ground in 2009.

Due to puncturing of cable that carried 1500 volt Direct current (DC) power, the current leaked via the adjoining signalling cable, which runs between the signalling cabins between Kurla and Vidyavihar.

The panel has recommended that high tension cable should not be laid underground to prevent a repeat of such incidents. Jain is yet to accept the report findings.

The incident caused few crores of rupees loss to CR due to damage to equipment and loss of business as freight traffic remained suspended traffic for five days. Around 68 signal stopped working in the affected stretch, forcing CR to run only 70 per cent of its services on April 18 and 85 per cent on April 19.