Cash-strapped railways to suffer Rs 130 cr loss due to Itarsi station fire

New Delhi: Indian Railways is likely to suffer a loss of about Rs 130 crore with services of more than 180 trains being affected due to recent major fire at Route Relay Interlocking (RRI) cabin at Itarsi station.[caption id=“attachment_2263134” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Indian Railways. AFP[/caption] The railways have started to inform passengers about the status of affected trains through SMS. Passengers with confirmed tickets of a cancelled train would get a message about cancellation of their train on their mobile phones. It will take about 35 days to restore the normalcy on the section as the RRI room has been gutted, Railway Board Member (Traffic) Ajay Shukla said in New Delhi today after returning from Itarsi. The fire inflicted huge damage to the operation room, indication panel and wiring system. “Since Itarsi junction is centrally located, trains coming from all directions are being disrupted. Now the operation is managed manually, as a result many trains are running late, affecting the punctuality,” Shukla said. Many trains were cancelled while some have to be diverted. Services of about 141 passenger trains were affected and about 50 freight trains were diverted due to the fire, causing loss to the public transporter. According to a senior railway ministry official, since it will take more than a month to restore normalcy, it is estimated that railways will suffer loss of about Rs 130 crore during this period. Though investigation was on to ascertain the exact cause of fire, electrical fault was suspected for the incident. RRI is a system by which all the signals and the points or crossings which are used for changing of routes at junction station are operated centrally from a cabin through electrical devices. Divisional officers are camping at the site to manage the situation. PTI