Rajdhani Express fire in MP's Ratlam hits Mumbai-Delhi rail traffic restoration underway

    Ratlam (MP), May 17 (PTI) Rail traffic on the Mumbai-Delhi route was disrupted, affecting several trains, after a fire broke out in a Rajdhani Express in Ratlam district of Madhya Pradesh early Sunday, officials said.
    The repair work of the overhead equipment was underway, and the traffic was likely to be restored in two hours, they said.
    The blaze erupted at 5.15 am in an AC coach of the Delhi-bound Thiruvananthapuram-Hazrat Nizamuddin Rajdhani Express between Vikramgarh Alot and Lunirichha stations under the Kota division of Railways, they said.
    The movement of 8 to 10 passenger trains was affected due to the incident, Kota's Additional Divisional Railway Manager Lakit Kumar Dhurandar, who was at the spot, told PTI over the phone.
    "The repair work (on the overhead equipment) is underway on war-footing," he said.
    The fire broke out in the B-1 coach of the Rajdhani Express, heading from Thiruvananthapuram to Delhi, and spread to the luggage-cum-guard van. The coach, carrying as many as 68 passengers, was evacuated within 15 minutes, and there were no casualties, officials said.

    The affected coach was later detached from the rake after the overhead electric supply was switched off as a safety measure.

    The cause of the fire is under investigation, the officials said.

(This story has not been edited by THE WEEK and is auto-generated from PTI)