Bundle of clothes on tracks derails train, disrupts services

A bundle of clothes thrown by a woman commuter on the railway tracks near Wadala, led to the derailment of a CST-bound Vashi train on Tuesday evening.

A bundle of clothes thrown by a woman commuter on the railway tracks near Wadala, led to the derailment of a CST-bound Vashi train on Tuesday evening.

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Sunil Malusare, assistant inspector of police (GRP) Central Railway said, “Lalita Bore, 45, wanted to go to the old cloth market in Wadala, which operates near the railway tracks. To avoid walking back from the station to the spot, she threw the heap of clothes out of the luggage compartment in which she was travelling. While doing so, the other bundle that she had fell on the tracks.”

As a CST-bound train from Vashi was heading towards the Wadala Road station at 4.23pm, the motorman spotted the bundle of clothes. In a state of panic, he applied the emergency brakes leading to the derailment of the front coach of the train.

Bore has been arrested for causing damage to railway property.

The derailment affected the services on the CST-Panvel and CST-Bandra-Andheri route. While the traffic at Wadala station was cleared by 4.50pm, the services continued to run behind schedule. “After waiting for more than 40minutes for a Panvel-bound train at Kurla, I decided to travel in the opposite direction. I then changed the train from Chunnabhati as the platform at Kurla station was crowded,” said Neelam Gawade, a Chembur resident.