Water gushes from the pipe that fell on the running train. (PTI)

Thane, Oct. 23: Water, not flames or smoke, leapt over the site of an unusual railway accident today after a bulky pipeline and a part of an under-construction bridge fell on a moving local train near Mumbai.

The broken pipe lay over the front coach, hosing the rubble-strewn scene with gallons of water as the fire brigade struggled to rescue the driver, trapped in his smashed cabin, who later died in hospital along with a passenger.

Ten others, including a 23-year-old woman, were injured in the freak accident that happened around 10.55am when the Kalyan Local was passing under the bridge. The site is about half a kilometre from Thane railway station and 34km from Mumbai’s Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus.

Railway officials said one of the bridge’s four concrete beams collapsed on the adjoining water pipeline that is supported by a steel bracket, and both came down on the train’s front coach together with a shower of debris.

The pipeline collapse led to a water shortage in the neighbouring localities of Thane East and Thane West.

The accident derailed two coaches of the train and severely damaged around 50 metres of the tracks and overhead equipment. Railway officials said it would take at least 30 hours to restore services.

To help the thousands of commuters from the suburbs, 88 additional public buses were deployed between CST, Sion, Ghatkopar and Thane. The railways also diverted many suburban trains to alternative routes.

Driver R. Ramachandran, 43, remained trapped inside his cabin for three-and-a-half hours before the railways’ gas cutters freed him at 2.30pm. A Thane fire brigade official said: “We had gas cutters… the railway gas-cutting equipment was more sophisticated, but there was a delay.”

Ramachandran and Bhandup-resident Subhash Nikam, 35, died at Thane civil hospital. Two passengers suffered grievous injuries.

The accident started a blame game between the railways and the Thane municipality, which was building the overbridge. K.D. Lala, senior engineer with the civic body, alleged that the construction, started in 2002, could not be completed solely because of delays in acquiring railway permissions.

“We laid three girders (beams) and were waiting for railway approval for the fourth. We wrote to the Mumbai and Thane railway authorities and work was suspended because of lack of permission. We cannot guarantee the safety of the girders once incomplete work is suspended,” Lala said.

A railway spokesperson said: “The bridge is on railway property, but is built by Thane Municipal Corporation. How can the railways be responsible for its maintenance?”

Municipal commissioner Nandkumar Jantre has ordered an investigation into the cause of the bridge’s collapse.

Railway minister Mamata Banerjee has announced Rs 5 lakh each for the families of the dead, Rs 1 lakh for each of the grievously injured, and Rs 10,000 for those with minor injuries.

Central Railway cancelled 24 long-distance trains, including the Down Kurla Terminus-Howrah Holiday Special.

Three Calcutta-bound trains — the Mumbai-Howrah Mail via Nagpur, Mumbai-Howrah Mail via Allahabad, and the Kurla Terminus-Howrah Jnaneshwari Express — were rescheduled to leave from CST and Kurla Terminus on Saturday morning.