Metro Railway is so short of trains that it aims to redeploy the air-conditioned rake that caught fire on Thursday evening within a week, sources said on Saturday.

The rake has been kept at the Noapara car shed, where the commissioner of railway safety (eastern zone) is likely to carry out an inspection on Monday as part of the inquiry into the fire accident.

The commissioner will also inspect the north-bound track between Rabindra Sadan and Maidan, where the accident occurred, and speak to eyewitnesses and officials.

While the inquiry has only just begun, Metro Railway officials are hoping they will be allowed to hasten the AC rake’s return in the interest of service frequency. The city’s transport lifeline is saddled with an ageing fleet prone to breakdowns.

“We don’t plan to discard the rake. The damage it has suffered is minimal and there is not enough grounds to leave it out of the fleet,” a senior official said.

Several passengers were injured on Thursday while leaping out through windows whose glass panes were shattered to let air into the stuffy compartments after the train halted and electricity went off.

The fire had started in the undercarriage of the first compartment when the iron covering of a third-rail current collector came off and was dragged along the track. But exactly what caused the sparks is still to be confirmed.

The current collector is a piece of equipment attached to the train that collects power from the third rail of a Metro track. Each compartment in a rake typically has four such current collectors on either.

The fire services department on Saturday set up a four-member committee headed by the deputy director (headquarters) to examine the fire preparedness of the Metro network. “The panel has sent a letter to Metro Railway asking for a report within Tuesday,” said Jag Mohan, the director-general of the department.

Satyaki Nath, the chief operations manager of Metro Railway, acknowledged receiving the letter. “We will extend all possible cooperation,” he said.

The current strength of the Metro fleet is 25 trains, of which 13 are air-conditioned. Two old rakes were discarded — “condemned” in technical parlance — a few months ago.

Four new rakes manufactured at the Integral Coach Factory and billed as the future workhorses of the network are still waiting for clearance from the Lucknow-based Research Design and Standards Organisation.

More than seven lakh people use the Metro daily.