‘Check all pantry cars, take punitive action against lapses’: Railway Board launches 15-day fire safety drive in trains
The board took note of a report of the Southern Railway (SR), which has identified the most common lapses in trains, which leads to the fire incidents.
Following a set of fire accidents in trains recently, the Railway board has ordered a 15-day special inspection drive across Indian Railways to check lapses, primarily in pantry cars, and take action against those responsible for it.
The board took note of a report of the Southern Railway (SR), which has identified the most common lapses in trains, which leads to the fire incidents.
“During review of fire safety in trains, SR has brought to the notice the most common lapses w.r.t operation of pantry cars which are fire hazards. These lapses inter-alia include tampering of heating coil, replacement of standard coil by higher capacity heating coil, use of aluminium foils below heater coils, masking of smoke sensors, unsecured wiring, blocking of FDSS panels with cartons/water bottles etc.,” the board said.
Apart from these, the Southern Railway also listed replacement of standard 2 kW coils by higher-capacity 3 kW heating coils, direct connection to fridge with non-standard jointing, loose jointing of electrical wires to facilitate shifting of hotplates from one pantry car to another, plastic or inflammable material on hot boiler, inflammable packing material obstructing Fire Detection and Suppression System (FDSS) etc as lapses behind fire incidents in pantry cars.
Among other causes of fire in the power cars of the train are oil spillage on engine room floor, non-functional FDSS smoke sensor in engine room, control panel doors are not closing effectively and creating openings that may allow the entry of rodents, leakage of acid or other fluid from batteries, damaged light fittings due to non-fixing of metallic grills in luggage room etc, the Southern Railway said.
It said that the fire safety drives will be undertaken jointly by the commercial and electrical engineering department and a report should be submitted to the board by June 20.
“During the drive, all pantry cars need to be checked by the owning zones and stringent punitive action must be taken on notice of any such lapses. Corrective measures should also be put in place to rectify the lapses/shortcoming noticed during the drive,” the board added.
The report has also identified deficiencies related to fire extinguishers in train coaches, including severely corroded extinguisher bottoms, bent discharge pipes, and pressure gauges indicating the RED zone, which makes extinguishers unfit during fire incident use.
A massive fire broke out in an AC coach of the Thiruvananthapuram-Hazrat Nizamuddin Rajdhani Express in Madhya Pradesh’s Ratlam district on May 17. All the passengers were evacuated safely and no injury or casualty was reported. A day later, a coach of an empty passenger train stationed at Bihar’s Sasaram Railway Station also caught fire.
The Southern Railway report also notes that the Research Designs and Standards Organisation (RDSO) modified the specification of voice recitation announcement system for passengers after the run-over incident of Pushpak express in January 2025. However, it is as per old specification in most of the coaches, except for new coaches.
In the Pushpak express incident, the passengers jumped off the train after rumour of a fire and at least 13 people were run over by incoming Karnataka express on adjacent track.
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Following a set of fire accidents in trains recently, the Railway board has ordered a 15-day special inspection drive across Indian Railways to check lapses, primarily in pantry cars, and take action against those responsible for it.
The board took note of a report of the Southern Railway (SR), which has identified the most common lapses in trains, which leads to the fire incidents.
“During review of fire safety in trains, SR has brought to the notice the most common lapses w.r.t operation of pantry cars which are fire hazards. These lapses inter-alia include tampering of heating coil, replacement of standard coil by higher capacity heating coil, use of aluminium foils below heater coils, masking of smoke sensors, unsecured wiring, blocking of FDSS panels with cartons/water bottles etc.,” the board said.
Apart from these, the Southern Railway also listed replacement of standard 2 kW coils by higher-capacity 3 kW heating coils, direct connection to fridge with non-standard jointing, loose jointing of electrical wires to facilitate shifting of hotplates from one pantry car to another, plastic or inflammable material on hot boiler, inflammable packing material obstructing Fire Detection and Suppression System (FDSS) etc as lapses behind fire incidents in pantry cars.
Among other causes of fire in the power cars of the train are oil spillage on engine room floor, non-functional FDSS smoke sensor in engine room, control panel doors are not closing effectively and creating openings that may allow the entry of rodents, leakage of acid or other fluid from batteries, damaged light fittings due to non-fixing of metallic grills in luggage room etc, the Southern Railway said.
It said that the fire safety drives will be undertaken jointly by the commercial and electrical engineering department and a report should be submitted to the board by June 20.
“During the drive, all pantry cars need to be checked by the owning zones and stringent punitive action must be taken on notice of any such lapses. Corrective measures should also be put in place to rectify the lapses/shortcoming noticed during the drive,” the board added.
The report has also identified deficiencies related to fire extinguishers in train coaches, including severely corroded extinguisher bottoms, bent discharge pipes, and pressure gauges indicating the RED zone, which makes extinguishers unfit during fire incident use.
A massive fire broke out in an AC coach of the Thiruvananthapuram-Hazrat Nizamuddin Rajdhani Express in Madhya Pradesh’s Ratlam district on May 17. All the passengers were evacuated safely and no injury or casualty was reported. A day later, a coach of an empty passenger train stationed at Bihar’s Sasaram Railway Station also caught fire.
The Southern Railway report also notes that the Research Designs and Standards Organisation (RDSO) modified the specification of voice recitation announcement system for passengers after the run-over incident of Pushpak express in January 2025. However, it is as per old specification in most of the coaches, except for new coaches.
In the Pushpak express incident, the passengers jumped off the train after rumour of a fire and at least 13 people were run over by incoming Karnataka express on adjacent track.
