World | India
Train drivers recount Tuesday's explosions
In the 14 years he spent driving Mumbai's local trains on the Western Railway, B K Majhi, 38, never imagined anything such as the bomb blasts that brought tragedy and trauma on the tracks on July 11.
- By Pamela Raghunath, Correspondent
- Published: 00:00 July 13, 2006
Mumbai: In the 14 years he spent driving Mumbai's local trains on the Western Railway, B K Majhi, 38, never imagined anything such as the bomb blasts that brought tragedy and trauma on the tracks on July 11.
"My Churchgate-Virar local [train] had left Mira Road station and was moving towards Bhayander when I heard this loud bang and immediately applied emergency brakes," he said.
"The overhead wires were falling in front of me and my first reaction, like any motorman, was to alert oncoming trains to stop," said Majhi, one of the seven driving the bomb-laden trains that Tuesday.
Speaking to Gulf News at the motormen's cabin at Churchgate terminus, he recalled how he jumped from the train with a fire extinguisher and ran to find the fourth coach ripped apart and mutilated bodies and human limbs scattered everywhere. "It was as though the compartment had burst open."
He spent all night, along with local residents, helping the injured and other passengers "and now I'm back on duty. My eyes well up with tears when I pass the blast site and the tragic pictures come before me."
Relatives of train driver Sachin Singh, 29, who were watching TV news of the blasts in Aligarh, Uttar Pradesh, could not contact him and spoke to him only at 9pm.
"This was the worst day in my life," he says. He was driving the Churchgate-Virar fast train when there was a blast just as he was approaching Matunga station.
"At first, I thought something had hit my train. A bomb blast was not at all on my mind. And then the horror of hearing people's screams and to avert further disaster, I switched on the flasher lights to alert oncoming trains to stop and put off the electric equipment so that passengers who were jumping down from the train did not get a shock."
In Mahim, another blast site, many commuters who jumped down were mowed down by another train rushing past towards Borivili.
And train diver Satish Sharma, 35, who was accompanying his friend Singh after finishing his duty on his way home, said the massive blast stunned him as he had never imagined it to be a bomb.
"There was smoke all over and people crying in shock and pain."
It was not just local residents who came on to the tracks to help, "but 25 to 30 motormen who live near the railway stations also offered their services."
All seven drivers immediately informed the control room of the blast and were told not to move.
Now, everyone is back at work but the frightening memories linger on.
"All of us are focusing our minds on the job that we have to do and trying to erase those dreadful memories."
But all drivers agree that security needs to be stepped up and more importantly, passengers should be more alert and inform police of any suspicious objects in the trains or platforms.
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