No extra bogie: HC pulls up SCR

The Telangana High Court on Monday directed the divisional railway manager (DRM), South Central Railways, Secunderabad, to appear on Tuesday and explain why an extra bogie was not attached to the Biharbound Hyderabad-Patna train to shift 45 guest workers hailing from Bihar back home.

A division bench comprising Chief Justice Raghavendra Singh Chauhan and Justice B. Vijaysen Reddy was dealing with petitions related to the plight of guest workers stranded in the state.

Amicus curiae (friend of the court) Vasudha Nagaraj submitted that the families of some guest workers from Bihar and Uttar Pradesh had been housed in shelter houses since several days, as there was no transportation available. She said that SCR was not taking the initiative to transport these 45 workers back to Bihar.

The Chief Justice observed: “When a goods train can be run with 72 bogies, why can’t the SCR attach an extra bogie to the existing 24 bogies? It doesn’t cost much. There is no scientific reason which disallows SCR from adding an extra bogie to the train,” the Chief Justice observed.

The CJ said, “When an NGO in Mumbai could arrange a flight to transport guest workers from Mumbai to Patna, why can’t the railways think out of the box? I do not think that the heart of the railways has stopped beating because it is not able to add an extra bogie so that these poor migrant workers will reach their state safely.”

Pushpender Kaur, standing counsel for SCR, submitted that it was not feasible as per the policy of Indian Railways to add an extra bogie to passenger trains. She said there were differences in technicalities between passenger and goods trains.

To get the details directly from the railway officials, the court summoned the DRM on Tuesday to explain the SCR’s stance.

● PUSHPENDER KAUR, standing counsel for SCR, submitted that it was not feasible to add an extra bogie to passenger trains.