87% AC passenger coaches fitted with fire detection system, says Eastern Railway

Kolkata: Around 87 per cent of the air-conditioned (AC) passenger coaches, which amounts to 949 out of 1092 AC coaches of long distance trains have been fitted with the Fire Detection and Brake Application (FDBA) system in Eastern Railway (ER) and rest 143 coaches will be fitted with the mentioned device very soon, ER disclosed.

The sources in ER said that the fitment started last year and will be completed in the next one to two months. “It is a fairly new system and has been installed in most premium trains including Rajdhani,” the source said. Smoking in trains is prohibited but many passengers continue to break the rule.

According to the officials, fitment of this system will also enable the staff to catch these passengers who continue to smoke despite rules against it being in place and imposition of fines. Apart from catching smokers, the system will help in effective detection of any fire breakout in a coach.

Any type of smoke emitted, even from cigarettes will be detected in smoke sensors. If the density of smoke is less the control panel will give an alert but if the smoke continues then brake application will be initiated bringing the train to a halt. After sixty seconds, an announcement will ask the passengers to evacuate the coach.