Three contractual labourers who were changing the cover over platform (COP) at Dadar railway station’s platform number 7 were electrocuted on Tuesday evening.
Three contractual labourers who were changing the cover over platform (COP) at Dadar railway station’s platform number 7 were electrocuted on Tuesday evening.
Sources said the labourers – Sunil Yadav, Baban Shinde and Saroj Prajapati – had been hired by the engineering department of Central Railway (CR) and met with the accident at 5.25pm. All three were taken to Sion Hospital; two of them have suffered severe burns.
According to railway rules, any work outsourced to private contractors must have a railway officer monitoring it however one of the first persons who responded as to what happened said that no railway official seemed to be at the platform. “We were informed immediately and we informed the station master who sent police to the platform but no railway man was there. The men were finally taken to hospital and they too asked if any railway man was around but there was none,” he said on condition of anonymity.
CR divisional railway manager Ravindra Goyal confirmed the incident and said, “There is a man at the hospital with the three men and usually, we do have a man supervising any such works, but in Tuesday’s case, the men had not been able to work due to heavy rains for the past three to four days because of which they went up and began working on their own. This usually doesn’t happen but the welding equipment seemed to have come in contact with the overhead wire and the men were electrocuted.”
When contacted, Sion Hospital’s casualty ward personnel said that the three men were in hospital and would be kept under observation. “We cannot give out much of the details but the men are under observation until now and we will know the situation in the morning,” said one of the staff.
