The Howrah-Mumbai Duronto Express faced interruption on Friday as its engine and generator car were detached from the rest of the train's coaches due to technical problems. The snag occured between the Uluberia and Birshibpur stations in the Kharagpur division of the South Eastern Railway (SER).
There was no report of passenger injury though.
According to a press statement released by the SER authorities, “the central buffer coupler (CBC) of the third coach got uncoupled from the generator car and the engine”.
The non-stop train had left Howrah at 8.20 a.m. and the incident took place at 8.57 a.m., stated the release. As per the rules, the driver stopped the engine after some time in order to avoid collision with the coaches.
A maintenance team rushed to the spot and re-coupled the coaches and the train was able to restart at 10.27 a.m.,
only to be stopped at the Kharagpur station soon after as the coaches air-conditioning system problems .
“Since the generator car had got decoupled, there was an interruption of electricity supply to the air-conditioning machines. The problem was fixed after shunting the coaches within less than an hour and the train left Kharagpur at 12.50 p.m.,” Anil Handa, Divisional Railway Manager (Kharagpur), told The Hindu .
The passengers expressed protest against the railway authorities at the Kharagpur station for the repeated disruptions.
Meanwhile, while leaving Kharagpur the non-stop train was running two-and-half hours behind schedule but Mr. Handa felt that the train could easily make up lost time. The SER authorities said that a committee has already been set up to initiate an inquiry into the incident.
