Title - Railway minister suspects sabotage

Union minister of state for railways K.M. Muniyappa said on Saturday that he strongly suspected sabotage in the Tamil Nadu express fire mishap on Monday last.

Speaking to reporters, after the darshan of Lord Venkateswara, Mr Muniyappa ruled out the possibility of short circuit in TN express. “Each and every train will undergo servicing once in four months. The TN Express also went for regular servicing and there is no scope for short-circuit. We are suspecting it to be a blast. Full details are expected after the forensic report,” he said.

Replying to a question about the safety aspect in trains, he said that the railways is going to take up a couple of integrated safety projects soon. “Already Un-ion railway minister Muk-ul Roy spoke to Prime Mi-nister Manmohan Singh about this. Our study reve-aled that Belgium Railways are the best in safety aspect. Along with Tirup-ati, a total of 50 railway stations will be developed with Belgium Railways guidelines and technology, initially,” he said.

Regarding the new Srikalahasti-Nadikudi railway line, he said that the works would be expedited.

Meanwhile, Mr Muniyap-pa clarified that the total number of deaths on the day of fire mishap on the express train was 28 only and not 30 or 32 as was re-ported in the media. Howe-ver, after the observation of the minister, a fresh death was reported from Nellore from among the injured undergoing treatment.