October 15: Three second-class and three AC bogies of the 1063 Dn Dadar-Chennai Express derail at Ambernath station, leaving 16 persons injured and train services on the Karjat-Pune line affected.

The two derailments at Badlapur and Ambarnath railway stations within a week of each other have brought certain startling and disturbing disclosures to light, with maintenance staff and engineers of the Central Railway (CR) identifying three danger-prone segments along the tracks. They confide that the Vikhroli-Mulund (18-20 km), Ulhasnagar-Vangani (28-30 km, which includes Ambarnath and Badlapur stations) and Khadavli-Vasind (30-35 km) segments are accident-prone, with the tracks here regularly sliding out of alignment.

In fact,three of the four derailments on the CR this year have taken place between Ambarnath and Badlapur stations with an equal number last year. Also, a derailed goods train rammed into shops near a railway cabin parallel to the tracks near Badlapur station in September 1998, killing five persons.

According to a CR engineer, the distance between tracks on the broad gauge is to be maintained at a constant to be 157.1 cm. However, since last year, it has been noticed that the distance has been varying between 4 mm and 8 mm. The slightest variation, he adds, can throw a moving off the tracks, causing the train to derail. If that doesn't happen, the train will wobble with the wheels always in danger of jumping the tracks.

Maintenance staff point out that the labourers hired to keep the tracks in working order the constant hurtling of trains loosens the sleepers, nuts and bolts and consequently the tracks are often private labourers who are paid according to the distance covered per day. In a bid to cover greaterdistances, they usually gloss over the work, allowing the track alignment to change.

As for the derailment of the Khopoli local at Badlapur on October 8, residents from the slums nearby say a stray piece of track from a consignment dumped by the railway's Public Works Department near the cabin had probably cause the mishap. According to a slum-dweller, one of the smaller pieces of track was pushed on to the siding track and used as a see-saw by children over a fortnight ago. ``When the Khopoli local chugged in, the piece of track, which by then had moved ahead, got lodged in the wheels of the train, derailing it,'' he says.

Technical staff and motormen at the Kalyan loco-shed too voice concern at the CR's falling safety standards. Remarks a senior motorman: ``The idea that so many lives are at stake due to somebody else's error, and that one cannot do anything about it is chilling. There has been a sharp rise in the number of instances where the railway staff's negligence has caused mishaps andnear-mishaps, but except for the head or two that rolls, there is no accountability. This makes the danger ever-present.''

Technical staff also point to the proliferating slums, which have only exacerbated the problem. ``The unwillingness of our bosses to touch old slum colonies in Mumbai can be understood, but what prevents them from cracking down on the new slums coming up all along the central suburbs,'' asks a motorman, citing the example of Kalwa, Dombivli and Shahad. ``In fact, in Shahad, the blind turn makes it very difficult to make out if anyone is ahead until he or she is hit,'' he points out. Sewerage and refuse from these slums (which, unlike slums in Mumbai, have no gutters and are located on a level higher than the tracks) accumulate along the tracks, leading to signal failures, he explains.

Divisional Railway Mananger, S C Gupta, denied that the number of derailments had gone up. ``We have had fewer derailments than last year,'' he claimed, maintaining that there had been only threederailments this year. Reminded of the engine that derailed near Ambernath last month, he said he was not aware of it. He also claimed that charges of poor maintenance of tracks leading to accidents were ``exaggerated''. ``In any case, an inquiry is on and the findings will be out within a week,'' he told Express Newsline.