by Bhupen Goswami

Guwahati :At least three coaches of Silchar-Trivandum express were affected in a major fire which broke out in the early hours on Sunday. According to sources, the fire broke out in a sleeper class coach close to the pantry car of the express train which was stationed at platform No.4 at the Silchar Railway Station.A major fire on Sunday burnt three coaches of the Silchar-Trivandrum Express train while stationary at station in Silchar, the main city in southern Assam adjoining Tripura, officials said. No one was hurt in the incident. The Trivandrum bound Express train, which arrived here at midnight on Saturday, was scheduled to leave Silchar station at 8.05 a.m. on Tuesday morning. According to police officials, the fire broke out on Sunday morning from a sleeper class compartment adjacent to the pantry car of the train at Silchar station, 380 km northeast of the state capital. “Initially, the railway personnel tried to douse the fire with fire extinguishers. But soon the fire spread to two nearby compartments including a chair-car coach, resulting in three compartments being gutted, before fire tenders came to the station and controlled the blaze,” the official said. He said that the train caught fire an hour before the Silchar-Agartala train was scheduled to leave for Tripura. “The station manager noticing the fire quickly shifted the passengers packed in the Silchar-Agartala train to another platform.” All the coaches of the train were locked when the train caught fire.

There is no report of any death or injury in the incident. Railway authorities are probing the cause of the fire. The fire broke out from a sleeper class adjacent to the pantry cart of the Silchar Trivandrum Express which was waiting in platform number 4 of the station. According to reports, the railway staff initially tried to douse the fire with the fire extinguisher. However, the inferno rolled on to two other coaches and fire traders rushed into the site. There are no reports of any human injury yet. The actual reason for the fire is not yet known. Investigation is on. About the Train: Thiruvananthapuram Central – Silchar Express is a Superfast express train belonging to Indian Railways – Northeast Frontier Railway zone that runs between Thiruvananthapuram Central and Silchar in India. It holds the record of being the most delayed train on the Indian Railways network, being delayed by an average of 10 – 12 hours. Initially, it ran between Thiruvananthapuram Central and Guwahati. From 21 November 2017, it has been extended to Silchar. After this extension, it is now the longest running superfast train and the second longest running train in India. It operates as train number 12507 / 15 from Thiruvananthapuram Central to Silchar and as train number 12508 / 16 in the reverse direction serving the 8 states of Assam, West Bengal, Bihar, Jharkhand, Odisha, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and Kerala.