Hyderabad: Alert mechanics avert disaster

Hyderabad: Alertness of the mechanics of 18046 East Coast Express from Hyderabad to Shalimar ensured avoiding a big disaster at the Secunderabad Railway Station, as they disconnected the diesel generator from the bogies which were torched by the protestors.

According to the team of mechanics of the train, they were taken aback with the sudden attack by the protestors. The train had started from Nampally railway station at 8.30 am. By the time it reached the platform 2 at Secunderabad, the protestors were hurling stones. According to the team, the protestors outnumbered the police initially. They broke the windowpanes of the loco pilot and later thrashed all windows of the train.

First the mechanics closed the door from inside the generator bogie to save themselves from stones. After learning that some protestors had torched the bogies of their train alert mechanics Ram Pyari Kori, Albert Barla and Suman Kumar Sharma, disconnected the bogie and ensured the other two torched bogies were separated.

"We did not expect such a thing will happen… we were frightened because of the attack, but after getting to know that the train was torched, we disconnected the generator, got down and also separated the coaches. The protestors came to us with rods and asked who we were and tried to attack us. They let us go after we told them we were students," said Sharma.

He said the generator was on when the protestors attacked the train. "The generator bogie had diesel of 4,000 litres. If the bogie had caught fire, it would have been a big disaster; many lives would have been lost," said Sharma. The officials heaved a sigh of relief with a major disaster being averted.