Fire at rail carriage workshop in Mumbai, none hurt

Fire broke out at a 100-year-old Carriage and Wagon Workshop of Central Railway in suburban Matunga Thursday morning, a railway official said. No injury or casualty has been reported in the incident, he said.

The fire brigade team received a call at around 6.28 am about the blaze following which four fire tenders, three water tankers and an ambulance were rushed to the spot, a fire brigade official said.

The blaze erupted in the debris of carpentry division of the workshop, he said, adding that the flames were brought under control by around 8.30 am. Central Railway's Chief PRO Narendra Patil said no loss to the railway property or employees has been reported. "But we would conduct an inquiry into the incident," Patil said.

Meanwhile, a workshop employee and member of the railway union alleged that such incidents have been reported in the past too, but officials have not learnt lessons from them. "We have been demanding timely disposal of debris from the premises, but officers have never paid heed to our requests. I hope the railway administration would take some lessons from it," he said.

The workshop had last year celebrated its 100 years of existence.

Proposed in April 1906 after acquisition of land between Dadar and Matunga areas in Mumbai, the Carriage and Wagon Workshop was finally set up in 1915 as a repair workshop for broad gauge and narrow gauge coaches and wagons of the erstwhile Great Indian Peninsula (GIP) Railway.