Derailment of four bullet tankers of a crude oil laden goods train from Mangalore to Indian Oil depot at Irugur in Coimbatore on Sunday in the yard line led to disruption of train services on the Coimbatore – Chennai and Coimbatore – Kerala sector for more than half-a-day.
According to railway sources, the four bullet tankers of the goods train derailed in the yard line that branches off from the main line towards the Irugur Indian Oil Corporation depot took place around noon. Though the derailment took place in the yard line, the derailed bogies disrupted the overhead electric tractions. This resulted in the disruption of rail traffic on the main line.
The trains that suffered disruption included the Alleppey – Dhanbad Express on both the directions, Chennai – Coimbatore Kovai Express, Coimbatore – Chennai Kovai Express, Ernakulam – Bangalore Intercity Express (on both directions), Rapti Sagar Express, Kongu – Nizamuddin Express, Mangalore – Chennai Egmore Express and Tiruvananthapuram – Hyderabad Sabari Express.
The restoration loco from Erode arrived at noon. However, the re-railing works and restoration of the electric traction took a number of hours for the work force owing to non-availability of power supply. The authorities were confident of restoring the normal train services by late in the evening. With one single line available for traffic, the authorities managed the operation of train services on both the sections though the delay ranged from 45 minutes to three hours.
