Fire extinguisher found again on rail track, officials say might have fallen off from some train

Kanpur: For the second time this week, a fire extinguisher belonging to the railways was found on the tracks on Wednesday with officials saying it was spotted by the loco pilot of a goods train who applied breaks near Ambiyapur station in Kanpur dehat.

They said there was no criminal intent behind the act and the extinguisher might have fallen off from some train accidently.

On September 29, a fire extinguisher was found on the rail tracks between Govindpuri and Bhimsen stations here. The loco pilot applied emergency brakes and stopped the train away from the extinguisher, which also belonged to the railways.

Wednesday's incident came to light around 6:30 am when the loco pilot apprised his seniors who, in turn, alerted the GRP and Railway Protection Force (RPF) about it.

No FIR has been lodged in the matter so far, the officials said.

The goods train had hardly reached Ambiyapur railway station when the driver spotted a cylinder-like thing on the tracks, said Arpit Tewari, in-charge of Jhinjhak GRP outpost.

The cylinder was later found to be a fire extinguisher, he added.

Railway officials inspected the incident site and found the cylinder was a railway property and may have fallen from another train, said Superintendent of Police (Kanpur Dehat), BBGTS Murthy.

In the inquiry report in the September 29 case, the railway officials stated that the fire safety cylinder was railway property and it was issued by the section engineer (carriage & wagon) Gorakhpur and it may have fallen from any other train accidentally.

On September 22, an empty gas cylinder was also found on the tracks by a goods train loco pilot, who applied emergency brakes and stopped the train near Prempur railway station in Kanpur.

On September 16, Jaunpur district of the state, train operations were briefly disrupted after a rail track was found broken near Rajnipur railway crossing, east of Harpalganj railway station in the Sultanpur rail division.

On the same day, the engine of a goods train derailed in Sonbhadra, disrupting rail traffic for hours after debris from a nearby hill fell on the tracks due to heavy rains, railway officials said.

In the incident, the goods train travelling from Chunar to Chopan in the Sonbhadra district hit the debris near Brahmababa bridge and its engine got derailed.

On September 8, another attempt was made to derail the Kalindi Express, heading towards Bhiwani from Prayagraj, by placing an LPG cylinder on the tracks near Shivrajpur area here.

The train had hit the cylinder before coming to a screeching halt.

On August, 22 coaches of the Ahmedabad-bound Sabarmati Express passenger train had derailed near Govindpuri station in Kanpur after the engine hit an "object placed on the track".