S Lalitha By

Express News Service

BENGALURU: Hundreds of passengers suffered huge delays in their journeys on Tuesday as the schedules of many trains departing from Bengaluru and entering the city were affected due to a signalling cable getting damaged at the Baiyappanalli yard. The underground cable was severed on Tuesday afternoon by an earthmover carrying out work for the upcoming third coaching terminal at Baiyappanahalli, said a senior railway official.

Trains along the Bengaluru-Jolarpet section were affected. This is the second time in four days that train schedules were disrupted due to damage of signalling cables. Over the incident that occurred at 2.52 pm on Tuesday, the official said the JCB was being used for excavation outside the railway supervisor’s cabin when the cable got cut. He added, “These are cables laid 30 years ago. No one knows where exactly the cables are located right now and so such incidents are bound to occur.”

The cable connects the panelboard in the Station Master’s room at Baiyappanahalli to the signal post. “Since the connectivity got cut, all signals show red by default. The loco pilot needs to stop at the signal post and gets an authorization letter from the station master to run the train. This process takes 15 to 20 minutes. The train also needs to be run only at a restricted speed of 15 km per hour for some distance.”

Trains suffered delays of anywhere between 75 minutes and 120 minutes.

The Krishnarajapuram-Bhuvaneshwar Humsafar train scheduled to depart at 4.05 pm from Baiyappanahalli left only at 5.20 pm. The KSR Bengaluru Ernakulam Superfast Express, the Baiyappanahalli-Whitefield MEMU special train, Jaipur-Yeshwantpur Express Special, Karaikal-Bengaluru Passenger and Yesvantpur-Salem Passenger were among other trains that have suffered delays

until 9 pm, informed a railway official.