Kadalundi mishap: probe points finger at bridge

By Our Staff Reporter

KOZHIKODE, JULY 22. The Chief Commissioner of Railway Safety, Mr. R. Rajamani, has dropped enough hints that the cause of the recent rail accident at Kadalundi, which resulted in the death of more than 50 persons, was due to the dilapidated condition of the 140-year-old bridge across the Kadalundi River.

Speaking to presspersons after inspecting the crucial ``broken third pier'' of the bridge, at Kadalundi, near, here, today, Mr. Rajamani said that his inspection revealed that the pier was broken even before the accident occurred.

The cast iron inside the pier had rusted long ago and that water had entered it through the corroded parts. The 13-metre pier had different measures at its sides pointing out that its thinning had taken place following the corrosion in a span of time.

The length at the westside was 3.3 m while at the eastside was 2.3 m, he said.

Mr. Rajamani, who is here in connection with the probe, said that the accident might have occurred due to some external forces acting on the crumbled bridge which obviously led to derailment of the train.

However, Mr. Rajamani did not mention what were those ``external forces ''. Was it due to a few old bogies remaining stationary, a theory that has been doing the rounds ever since the accident?

Following largescale criticisms that investigations were getting the restoration of train services delayed, the Southern Railways were forced to pull out the broken pier from the protected coffer dam by using a crane on Sunday.

Earlier, it was decided to flush out the water inside the coffer dam. But officials had to abandon the idea as it was time consuming. Mr. Rajamani had insisted that he could not complete the investigations process until he inspected the broken pier, a vital source of evidence.

The State Forensciec director, Mr, Vishnu Potti, who was also at the site said that he wanted a further examination of the pier to make any conclusions. He also sought the help of the teams from IIT Chennai and Central Electrical and Research Institute, Karaikudi, for metallurgical studies.

The REC team was also at the site for examining the broken pier.

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