Two lives were lost on Wednesday morning for the railway officials to do what they should have done years ago.

“We have started cutting the track overhead equipment masts with tower vans. One has been removed and the other will be removed late at night,” said an official of Eastern Railway.

The masts being referred to were the ones that had allegedly claimed the lives of Kallol Sarkar and Rajkumar Mahato, and injured four passengers on the Down Naihati-Sealdah local between Belgharia and Dum Dum stations on Wednesday morning.

“These track overhead equipment masts that hold up electric wires have not been in use for several years, ever since the load was taken off them and shifted to masts set up at safer distances from the tracks,” said a railway official.

According to railway sources, a post should ideally be 2.5 metres from the centre of the track, at a right angle. The minimum permissible distance is 2.35 metres.

Daily commuters on the route said the defunct masts were no more than 0.5 metre from the door of the train at the critical bend in the track where the accident occurred. So the distance from the post to the centre of the track would be no more than 2 metres. A railway official said “the exact distance could not be measured” because of the agitation on Monday.

“We have been urging the authorities to remove the posts for years now. There is an accident here every few months when passengers hanging out of overcrowded trains hit the post and suffer injuries. But the authorities were probably waiting for lives to be lost before taking action,” said Probal Saha, a commuter on the Naihati-Sealdah route.

If the non-removal of the not-in-use posts can be blamed on sloth, the metal rod at the door allegedly coming loose in the hands of those hanging on to it for dear life can be blamed on the laxity in maintenance.

One of the overhead equipment masts being cut down on Wednesday. Picture by Pranab Biswas

Sumit Ranjan Chakraborty, who suffered head, waist and leg injuries, recounted how “the rod suddenly came loose” just as the first bogey swerved left, causing six passengers to lose their grip, slam into the posts and fall off the train.

Railway officials rubbished Chakraborty’s version claiming that “no rod had come unstuck”. A member of the probe team said: “The driver and the guard have said some passengers fell off probably after they hit a post. Our preliminary inquiry suggests that no rod had come loose.”

When asked who must be held responsible if the rod had indeed come loose, a retired official of the Eastern Railway said fingers would point at “the electrical department which is in charge of maintenance on EMU locals”.

Overcrowding and lack of maintenance can cause such an accident, he added.