Mumbai, Oct 23 (IANS) In a freak accident, a bridge carrying a main water pipeline came crashing down on a moving suburban train in Mumbai, killing two people and injuring 11 others. A probe has been ordered into the accident.
The water pipeline which burst flooding the railway lines supplied drinking water to some areas of Thane city and suburbs. The areas will experience water shortage till the pipeline is repaired.

Shortly after the accident, relief work was taken up on a war footing to repair the railway tracks on the six corridors that serve the Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus (CST)-Thane section, which is also India’s first railway line.

Railway Minister Mamata Banerjee has blamed the Thane Municipal Corporation (TMC) for Friday morning’s pipeline crash on the Kalyan to CST local train. The Commissioner for Railway Safety (CRS) will conduct an inquiry into the incident, an official said.

“The inquiry will go into all aspects, including the reason why the under-construction pipeline collapsed without warning,” a railway official told IANS this evening.

Among the two victims was a commuter Subhash Popat and the ill-fated train’s motorman (driver), R. Ramachandran, who was trapped in the engine cabin for over over hours and succumbed before he could be rescued.

Ramachandran, 41, was a resident of Dombivli suburb in Thane district. Popat succumbed in the Thane Civil Hospital, where another 11 injured commuters are undergoing treatment.

“The massive restoration work will take at least 30 hours and is expected to be completed only by Saturday evening,” a railway spokesman told IANS.

Until then, the Central Railways has suspended all suburban and long-distance train services on the Ghatkopar-Thane section, leaving millions of commuters stranded the whole day.

Long distance train services on the Pune, Kolkata and Chennai sectors have also been hit.

The Western Railway (WR) today pitched in by permitting all Central Railway ticket and pass-holders to travel.

With a view to ferry the several lakhs of stranded commuters between Ghatkopar-Thane, the Thane Municipal Corporation, Kalyan-Dombivli Municipal Corporation and the Bombay Electric Supply & Transport have deployed extra buses till Saturday.