Railway tracks along Nagothane and Roha poorly maintained: railway officials (Indian Express News))

Poor maintenance of railway tracks along Nagothane and Roha section of the Central Railway resulted in the derailment of Diva-Sawantwadi Road passenger train, which claimed 21 lives and injured 124 passengers on Sunday, said railway sources.
The engine and four coaches fell off the tracks after derailing between Nagothane and Roha on Sunday. Another coach was partially derailed. While loco pilot of the train, Srinivas Rao and a spare loco pilot Govind Solunkhe suffered minor injuries, assistant loco pilot Deepak Kumar suffered serious injuries. All three are admitted in Kalyan Railway Hospital.

“Negligence on part of engineering department while maintaining welded rails has led to the fracture of tracks that caused the derailment,” said a senior railway official. The Ultrasonic Flaw Detection (USFD) had recently detected a flaw in the welded rails along the accident spot, following which joggled fish plates were used to protect the rails, said the CR officer.

A joggled fish plate is a curved metal plate fixed on both sides of the welded rail as an emergency measure. A speed restriction of 20kmph until the rails are completely replaced is to be maintained, as per the the Permanent Way Manual of the Indian Railways.

The train was travelling at a speed of 60kmph at the time of the accident, confirmed another CR officer.

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Source Page: http://indianexpress.com/article/cities/mumbai/railway-tracks-along-nagothane-and-roha-poorly-maintained-railway-officials/