Rail services hit after Itarsi fire

The fire at Madhya Pradesh’s Itarsi railway station will largely affect train services from all routes, a railway spokesperson said on Thursday.

Railways has cancelled 72 trains and diverted a further 61. “The damage is severe and it may take several days to restore,” Railway spokesperson Anil Kumar Saxena said.

Fire broke out in Route Relay Interlocking (RRI) room at Itarsi on Wednesday causing extensive damage to operational panel, indication panel and the entire wiring. A substantial number of relays have been damaged in the fire, besides the signalling relay room system. The cause of the fire is yet to be ascertained.

Signalling Relay Room system is a panel of electrical devices to manage signals and points of crossings to change routes at a junction station. They are centrally operated from a cabin. Damage to the system in Itarsi, a major junction, paralysed services from several important destinations.

“It is a critical junction on Bombay-Bhopal, Bhopal-Nagpur and Bombay-Jabalpur-Allahabad route,” Saxena said.  “It deals with about 75 Mail, Express and passenger trains every day”.