No safety certificate issued for Mahim derailment spot on WR line

Mumbai: An inquiry by the Commissioner of Railway Safety (CRS) Shushil Chandra into the derailment of four coaches at Mahim on August 25 has unearthed the startling fact that the spot where the incident had occurred was operating without proper safety sanctions since October 2016.  

A safety certificate is essential for running trains on any line in the country as it given only after all safety parameters are fulfilled.

The shocking revelation comes a day after six derailments took place across the country while two took place in Dahanu and the other in Monkey Hill near Lonavala.

The Mahim Yard was to see a complete renovation for the 5th and 6th line.

The Western Railway (WR) had proposed this work along with the Mumbai Railway Vikas Corporation (MRVC) back in September of 2015.

The work was then completed by October 2016, and services began to run up to Andheri. The plan was to eventually run services up to Goregaon. Mr Chandra, who wrapped up the inquiry into the August 25 incident on Friday, has said that the WR hadn’t received a safety certificate for running that section.

“After the derailment, when we asked the WR for this safety sanction, it came to our notice that this was never given. This is why they were supposed to submit documents for the certificate, which they did, but they were incomplete,” he said.

Mr Chandra added, “Not only was the safety sanction after the remodelling not given to me, but I was not satisfied with the safety sanction letter that they sent me on Tuesday, and hence declared the section unsafe."

Meanwhile WR officials have said that the safety certificate went missing. WR GM A.K. Gupta said, “The safety certificate was not available in the office for some reason and therefore we have launched and a high-level inquiry into how it has gone missing. A report on this will be submitted to us in a week." He further added, “No unsafe operations were run on the section and all parameters checked and then double checked by the CRS.”

The WR sent the new letter of sanction in which it has assured that the crossover point will not be used and that the line will be run only on the safe section, at around 5. 10 pm, to Mr Chandra. Mr Chandra confirmed the same and said that he would be allowing the service to run for now.