RailEnquiry

Irked passengers detain Rajdhani Express for 2 hours TNN | May 15, 2012, 01.08AM IST

NAGPUR: Over 50 passengers of the Nizamuddin-Bangalore Rajdhani Express had a harrowing time on Monday after air-conditioner of a two-tier coach went out of order. The troubled passengers later detained the train for nearly two hours at Nagpur demanding immediate repairs.

The train arrived at its scheduled time of 10.15am but passengers travelling in A3 coach were irked over non-functioning of AC and detained the train putting Central Railway officials on their toes.

According to passengers, the AC tripped around 3am, when the train was still 350km away from Nagpur somewhere in Bhopal division. As the time was odd and there was no major station in between, agitated passengers detained the train at Nagpur.

The electrical staff attended the coach and tried to correct the problem but in vain. The microprocessor circuit was also replaced but the AC continued to trip, indicating there was some major fault.

The passengers wanted the officials to either repair the air-conditioner or replace the coach. Looking into the gravity of the situation, additional divisional railway manager (ADRM) Uday Borwankar and other senior officials reached platform number 2.

As the Rajdhani has German-made Linke Holfmann Bush (LHB) coaches and the city doesn't have such coaches in spare, it was impossible to replace the coach.

Central Railway public relations officer PD Patil said that ADRM Borwankar gave three options to the passengers which included accommodating them in other AC coaches; refund the fare or attach one AC II coach to Patna-Secunderabad Express which was to arrive shortly. Borwankar even talked to senior railway officials in Secunderabad who gave a green signal to attach an extra coach to the Patna Express.

However, while all the passengers agreed to get accommodated in other coaches of the Rajdhani, a couple of them were adamant on travelling in the same coach and demanded repairs to the AC, which seemed impossible.

"We were very accommodative and tried our best to pacify the passengers but they did not agree. Finally, two technical staffers were sent with the coach in case of any problem midway. The fault was major and it seems the AC would be repaired only in Bangalore," Patil said.