The railway ministry for the first time has begun the process of having fire exit doors for train coaches to help passengers escape in case of a fire incident and also to allow train staff to evacuate passengers quickly. The railway ministry will be picking up 10 coaches for this pilot project and will be spending Rs 30 lakh on each of these coaches to build these fire exit doors.

The thought of having fire exit doors in trains came up as part of a high-power study and research into train fires conducted last March by the railways' Centre for Advanced Maintenance Technology (Camtech) headquartered in Gwalior, Madhya Pradesh. It was one of the recommendations of the study apart from having bigger emergency windows for non-air conditioned coaches and also to have vestibules to connect general coaches so that people can move from one coach to another in case of a fire.

According to officials, the fire exit door is a good progress in a railway system that for several years now has had nothing to show as part of its fire-fighting mechanism apart from red-grilled emergency windows in general coaches. In fact, it is just of late that the railways has been toying with the idea of having thermal insulating material for latches and handles of doors so that passengers can hold them and open doors to escape a fire. The latter is also one of the recommendations made to the railways by the Camtech study.

"It is a good start because the railways safety record when it comes to fires is poor. Moreover, passengers also travel dangerously by sometimes smoking near the toilets and vestibules. There are also instances of people carrying liquor in trains. The railways should be severe on such passengers," said Bhandup-resident Manish Chaturvedi.

Why train fire is dangerous1) A train consists of long, narrow vehicles with limited exits coupled with each other2) High traveling speeds prevent quick escape and assist the rapid spread of fire3) Wide range of track conditions, including confined sections such as bridges, tunnels, ghats, etc., make it difficult for passengers to get off the vehicle easily in times of emergency4) Restriction in movement of passengers and fast spread of fire aggravates the situation5) A large number of passengers traveling on trains are attended to by a small team of train crew

Camtech study recommendations1) Fire extinguishers should be provided in all coaches, i.e., also in general second class coaches, non-AC 3 tier coaches and non-AC chair cars etc.2) The size of emergency exit windows in General Coaches/3-tier sleeper coaches/non-AC chair car shall be of larger size as in case of AC coaches so that it can be identified easily and easy to exit as these coaches are highly occupied3) Vestibuling in the general coaches may be explored, this will help in evacuating passengers in case of any disaster/emergency5) Authority to be given to AC mechanic to ask passengers to not to smoke6) Overhead water tanks of toilets may be provided with fusible drain plug. In case of fire this fusible drain plug will melt due to high temperature and water will spill out in door way area which may reduce the intensity of fire