Contractor booked for train mishap near Thane

Mumbai: Taking a cue from Railway Minister Mamata Banerjee's castigation of the Thane Municipal Corporation (TMC) for the water pipeline bridge collapse which killed two on Friday, the Government Railway Police on Saturday booked the contractor who is building the bridge.

According to an official, the complaint against the contractor - Ajay Mangal & Company of Thane - was lodged at the Kopri railway police station on Saturday.

Among other things, the contractor has been accused of negligence and shoddy work leading to the crash of the under-construction bridge which fell over a train, the official said.

Meanwhile, after working on a war-footing for 25 hours, the Central Railway (CR) finally managed to restore services on all the four lines between Ghatkopar and Thane that were suspended following the bridge collapse.

The road over-bridge carrying a critical drinking water pipeline came crashing down on a running suburban train on Friday at 1055 hrs IST killing two people and injuring 11 more.

Among the casualties was the train driver R Ramachandran, who remained trapped in the engine cabin for five hours before succumbing. The other was Subhash Popat, a commuter in the adjoining second class compartment.

This prompted Banerjee to squarely blame the TMC for the bridge collapse that threw commuter movement completely haywire and over four million daily commuters using the CR suffering till late in the night.

Besides lodging a complaint against the TMC contractor, the commissioner of railway safety will also conduct a separate inquiry into the incident.

The water pipeline supplied drinking water to Kopri and surrounding areas of Thane city. They have been experiencing a major water shortage since Friday.

The TMC deployed over two dozen tankers to supply water to the people on Friday evening, but the situation is expected to normalise only after another three days when the pipeline is replaced.

Following the repair works on the railway tracks, the CR resumed suburban and long-distance services on the Pune, Kolkata and Chennai sectors this morning.