Negligence by railway officials blamed for fatal fire accident in Madurai

A probe by railway security agencies revealed that not only two cooking gas cylinders, but also firewood and a bag full of coal were carried in the coach

A cooking gas cylinder and mangled utensils lying outside the coach that caught fire near Madurai railway station on Saturday. | Photo Credit: G. MOORTHY

Even as the inquiry into the fire accident that claimed nine lives is under way, railway authorities have been accused of having violated several standard operating procedures (SOPs) with respect to passenger safety.

The tourist coach should not have been parked in the stabling line, far away from the station. “When coaches are booked by the tour operator, railway administration charge them not only for tickets for passengers, but also for facilitating siding facility for coaches,” an official said.

The official said that passenger-carrying coaches should ideally be parked on platforms. Stabling lines do not have any facilities like water or electricity as they are meant for berthing empty rakes before they are taken to pit-lines for maintenance. “If the coach had been parked on a platform, the smoke that emanated from it would have been noticed immediately. But, as it was parked some 800 m from station, the passengers had to fend for themselves to break open the lock. Even their cries for help had gone unnoticed,” he said.

Many of the survivors, who were accommodated at the railway waiting hall, complained of pain in their legs. “Since most of the passengers were aged over 50, they would have found it difficult to jump from the coach to the ground. They would have hurt their legs as they landed on an uneven surface with hard gravels from a 5-feet height,” the official said.

However, General Manager R.N. Singh claimed that even saloons of railway officials are parked on the stabling line before they are brought back to the siding. This is done to ensure free rail movements.

One of the passengers, Ashok Kumar, who deposed before the Commissioner of Railway Safety here on Sunday, said a commotion broke out at a railway station after the train left Lucknow, when a Travelling Ticket Examiner had inspected the coach. “One of the support staff hid an LPG cylinder under our seat. But we don’t know what transpired after that,” he told The Hindu.

He and his wife said that during their tour, tea was always prepared inside the coach.

“Cooking only happened when we went out for sight-seeing...,” he said.

Madurai MP Su. Venkatesan had on Saturday blamed railway officials for failing to ensure safety of passengers.

A probe by railway security agencies revealed that not only two cooking gas cylinders, but also firewood and a bag full of coal were carried in the coach. The tour operator had converted toilets on one end of the coach into kitchen and store room. The fire had destroyed the upholstrey in the entire coach. Even window shutters, made of fibre, had melted.

A routine inspection would have thrown light on not only the presence of inflammable materials, but also use of gas stoves in the coaches, railway sources said.