Villager alerts rly staff of dislodged plates from tracks, averts accident

BILASPUR: An alert villager helped avert a possible train mishap when he informed the railway staff of fishplates lying open between Baikunthpur and Nagar stations of SECR on Wednesday.

According to sources, Dev Rajwade, a resident of Bishunpur in Koriya district, noticed more than a dozen dislodged fishplates while passing close to the tracks. He contacted the staff at Nagar station, who rushed to the spot and carried out the repair works.

The Ambikapur-Jabalpur Express had passed the spot a while back, while the Manendragarh-Ambikapur and Ambikapur-Shahdol passengers were due to pass soon.

When contacted about the incident, railway officials informed that tracks are tested regularly with the help of an ultrasonic flaw detection machine. Any flaw, whenever found is classified into two categories.

One of the categories is called OBS in technical terms, which means that the flaw is not serious and is kept under observation, while the other category is termed as IMR, which requires immediate removal and replacement of the affected part.

The flaw between Baikunthpur and Nagar stations was an OBS category flaw and already under observation. At this point a plate that is welded to two rails was giving some problems and was being constantly monitored.

Rajwade had seen this particular flaw and informed the authorities.

Railway officials further informed whenever some person other than a competent railway authority informs about any flaw on the tracks, train traffic is stopped and resumed only after a 'go ahead' is given by competent railway official following an inspection of the spot.

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