It could have been a disaster for the over-crowded Lalmoni Express if the shock absorber of one of its coaches collapsed on the Jamuna bridge yesterday.
Officials said the shock absorber stopped working yesterday because of excessive load of home-bound passengers, causing the train to be stranded on the bridge.
The incident blocked movement of all trains across the bridge for more than one and a half hours, ultimately causing disruption in schedules. The bridge has a single track for rail movement with a maximum speed of 16 kilometres per hour.
Trains usually cross the bridge at 10 kilometres per hour and many passengers keep their eyes closed at the time in fear.
“Lalmoni Express was stranded at the bridge station, delaying all trains on the route,” Tafazzal Hossain, director general of Bangladesh Railway, told the Dhaka Tribune.
Officials detected the collapse of the shock absorber of one of the coaches, he said. “Hundreds of holidaymakers filled the compartments and a large number of men, women and children sat on the roof. Because it is the Eid time, we cannot take action against them, though travelling on the roof is prohibited,” he said.
“There could have been many fatalities if the shock absorber had collapsed while the train was crossing the bridge. It could have plunged into the river but we could detect the fault before it got on the bridge,” an official of the joint director rank of the railway, who was involved in the rescue of the train, said.
Sarder Shahadat Ali, chief operating superintendent, said the railway staff forced some of the rooftop passengers to come down and took the train in the branch line to facilitate the movement of other trains. “It took one and a half hours to remove the coach and restart the journey,” he said.
All trains are examined on both ends of the bridge station before they travel on the bridge.
Mahbubur Rahman, divisional commercial official at Kamalapur Railway Station from where the train started at 12:30am, told the Dhaka Tribune that 980 passengers bought tickets from Kamalapur and Airport stations but several hundred more boarded the 13 coaches of the train.
“Besides, innumerable people got on the roof and sat there. This is why the collapse of the shock absorber is normal,” he said.
Md Khalilur Rahman, additional director general (rolling stock) of the railway, said the rooftop passengers caused big damage to the coaches.
“We have assessed that each of the coaches bore at least 12 tonnes of additional load due to passengers travelling on roofs. A coach has four shock absorbers. So, overcrowded compartments and the additional load on the roof can lead to any sort of accident,” he said. “Apart from that, most of the coaches were old,” added Khalilur.
Mihir Kanti Guha, joint director general of the railway, told the Dhaka Tribune that train surfing caused the vehicle to run slow.
“We cannot move on to high speed if there are passengers on the roof. If we did, many of them would fall straight,” he said.
