Smoke in Kolkata Metro rake, services disrupted for 20 mins

Three Metro passengers complained of suffocation Thursday morning as smoke emanated from under a train at Dum Dum station and entered into a few compartments, a fire brigade official said.

One of them had to be admitted at state-run R G Kar Hospital, while two others were released after administering first-aid at the station, he said.

Two fire tenders arrived at the station to take a note of the situation, but the Metro Railway personnel had detected and doused the source of smoke by then, he added.

A Metro spokesperson said that the smoke was detected from under the rake when it was leaving Dum Dum station, in the northern outskirts of the city, at 10.54 am.

On noticing the smoke, the train was immediately stopped and passengers evacuated from the coaches, she said.

"The train, which had come from Noapara carshed for its first trip of the day, was immediately replaced. Passengers left Dum Dum station for Kavi Subhash at 11.14 am as services remained disrupted for about 20 minutes," spokesperson Indrani Banerjee said.

This is the second incident of Metro service disruption due to fire in just over a month.

On December 27, smoke was detected in a coach of a train between Maidan and Rabindra Sadan stations and hundreds of panic-striken passengers had to be evacuated through the tunnel of the underground carriage system.

Banerjee said that the three-decade old non-A/C coaches are scheduled to be replaced once the Metro Railway gets clearance for four new air-conditioned rakes from the commissioner of Railway Safety (CRS).

"We will introduce these four rakes, delivery of which has been received from the Integral Coach Factory (ICF) in Perambur, as soon as we get the clearance from the CRS," the spokesperson added.