3 fall ill as smoke disrupts Metro services at Dum Dum

Kolkata: Three passengers fell ill after being suffocated due to smoke emanating from beneath a Metro rake at Dum Dum station on Thursday morning. Metro services were disrupted for nearly half an hour as a result.

One of the injured passengers had to be admitted to R G Kar Medical College and Hospital, while two others were later released after first aid. Following the incident, Metro officials informed the matter to the fire brigade. However, Metro personnel and security staff members managed to douse the smoke before fire officials reached the spot.

The Metro Railway officials swung into action on war footing and detected the source of the smoke. The electrical engineers and other officials rushed to the spot to assess the situation. Meanwhile, Metro security staff members immediately evacuated passengers from the train to avert any untoward incident.

"We immediately stopped the train following the incident. The train, which had come from Noapara carshed for its first trip of the day, was immediately replaced. The smoke was detected from under the rake when it was leaving Dum Dum station at around 10.54 am. Services remained disrupted for about 20 minutes," a senior official said.

This is the second incident of Metro service disruption due to fire in just over a month. In December last year, smoke was detected in a coach of a train between Maidan and Rabindra Sadan stations and hundreds of panic-stricken passengers had to be evacuated through the tunnel. A senior Metro Railway official said on Thursday that the three-decade old non-AC coaches are scheduled to be replaced once 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 clearance from the CRS," the official added.