A major disaster was averted after two trains that had just left the platforms, albeit slow, grazed against each other near Sealdah station in Kolkata on Wednesday morning. Fortunately, no one was injured.
A senior railways official said that around 10:50 am two trains left the Sealdah station almost simultaneously. While one was an empty rake that was being taken to the car-shed by the loco-pilot shunter, another was a Ranaghat-bound EMU local packed with passengers.
“Both trains had just started from the station and were moving at very low speed, not more than 7-8 km per hour. The empty rake was supposed to stop at a signal. However, it overshot the signal, leading to the incident,” said SP Singh, divisional railway manager of Sealdah.
A committee has been formed to probe the accident, officials said. Preliminary investigation suggested that the loco-pilot shunter of the empty rake jumped the signal. He has been suspended.
Sealdah station caters to more than 1 million passengers every day and is one of the busiest railway stations in India.
“The empty train came to a halt at least 10-15 metres beyond the signal causing the accident,” said the official.
The tracks were cleared after around two hours.
“The line did not face any major disruption of services as other tracks were not affected,” said a senior official.
