RANCHI: At least two passengers on board the 12810 Howrah-Mumbai Mail were killed and 18 others were injured after multiple coaches derailed in between Rajkharsawan and Barabamboo railway stations in Jharkhand’s West Singhbhum district in the early hours of Tuesday. The train had departed from Howrah on Monday evening.
A medical team of the Chakrdharpur division of South Eastern Railways (SER) has reached the site of the accident.“The injured have been brought to the Chakradharpur railway hospital and are being treated,” railway officials said.
“As many as two passengers were killed and 18 others were injured in the incident,” West Singhbhum deputy commissioner Kuldeep Choudhary told PTI.
The Jharkhand government said the train’s coaches derailed around 3:45 am as most of the passengers were asleep. “Both the deceased passengers were male and were on board the AC three tier coach B4,” the state government said in a statement.
Of the derailed coaches of the train, 16 were passenger coaches, one power car, and a pantry car. Choudhary said relief train and ambulance had ferried 80 passengers to the Chakradhapur railway hospital for treatment.
Mukesh Kumar Lunayat, SP Seraikela-Kharsawan, said the information was first relayed to the Amda police outpost close to the accident site. “The injured were hospitalised within one hour of the accident. Reinforcement of police personnel have been called from Jamshedpur as well,” he said.
While railway officials did not formally elaborate on the causes which led to the derailment, sources claimed that the mishap occurred after the train’s engine collided with a few freight boxes of a freight train which had derailed on the down line sometime ago. “The derailed coaches of the freight train had come onto the upline in which the Mumbai mail was running,” an eyewitness said.
The accident halted railway traffic on the all important Howrah-Mumbai rail route and several long-distance trains such as the Howrah-Titlagarh-Kantabanji Ispat Express and the Howrah-Barbil Janshatabdi Express. Several trains were diverted.
The railways said it set up help desks at Howrah, Kharagpur, Jamshedpur, Ranchi, Jharsuguda, Rourkela and other stations and released helpline numbers for Nagpur, Bhusawal and Mumbai.
The helpline numbers are 022-22694040 for Mumbai, 08799982712 for Bhusawal, 7757912790 for Nagpur, 0657-2290324 for Tata, 06587-238072 for Chakradharpur, 0661-2501072 and 0661-2500244 for Rourkela and 06645-272530 for Jharsuguda, the SER said in a statement.
Helpline numbers for Howrah are 9433357920 and 033-26382217, and for Shalimar are 7595074427 and 6295531471 and for Kharagpur is 03222-293764.
West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee slammed the Indian Railways and the Narendra Modi government for the latest string of railway incidents in recent months.
“Another disastrous rail accident! Howrah- Mumbai mail derails in Chakradharpur division in Jharkhand today early morning, multiple deaths and huge number of injuries are the tragic consequences. I seriously ask: is this governance? This series of nightmares almost every week, this unending procession of deaths and injuries on railway tracks: for how long shall we tolerate this? Will there be no end to the callousness of Government of India?! My heart goes out to the bereaved families, condolences to the next of kin,” Banerjee wrote on X.
A medical team of the Chakrdharpur division of South Eastern Railways (SER) has reached the site of the accident.“The injured have been brought to the Chakradharpur railway hospital and are being treated,” railway officials said.
“As many as two passengers were killed and 18 others were injured in the incident,” West Singhbhum deputy commissioner Kuldeep Choudhary told PTI.
The Jharkhand government said the train’s coaches derailed around 3:45 am as most of the passengers were asleep. “Both the deceased passengers were male and were on board the AC three tier coach B4,” the state government said in a statement.
Of the derailed coaches of the train, 16 were passenger coaches, one power car, and a pantry car. Choudhary said relief train and ambulance had ferried 80 passengers to the Chakradhapur railway hospital for treatment.
Mukesh Kumar Lunayat, SP Seraikela-Kharsawan, said the information was first relayed to the Amda police outpost close to the accident site. “The injured were hospitalised within one hour of the accident. Reinforcement of police personnel have been called from Jamshedpur as well,” he said.
While railway officials did not formally elaborate on the causes which led to the derailment, sources claimed that the mishap occurred after the train’s engine collided with a few freight boxes of a freight train which had derailed on the down line sometime ago. “The derailed coaches of the freight train had come onto the upline in which the Mumbai mail was running,” an eyewitness said.
The accident halted railway traffic on the all important Howrah-Mumbai rail route and several long-distance trains such as the Howrah-Titlagarh-Kantabanji Ispat Express and the Howrah-Barbil Janshatabdi Express. Several trains were diverted.
The railways said it set up help desks at Howrah, Kharagpur, Jamshedpur, Ranchi, Jharsuguda, Rourkela and other stations and released helpline numbers for Nagpur, Bhusawal and Mumbai.
The helpline numbers are 022-22694040 for Mumbai, 08799982712 for Bhusawal, 7757912790 for Nagpur, 0657-2290324 for Tata, 06587-238072 for Chakradharpur, 0661-2501072 and 0661-2500244 for Rourkela and 06645-272530 for Jharsuguda, the SER said in a statement.
Helpline numbers for Howrah are 9433357920 and 033-26382217, and for Shalimar are 7595074427 and 6295531471 and for Kharagpur is 03222-293764.
West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee slammed the Indian Railways and the Narendra Modi government for the latest string of railway incidents in recent months.
“Another disastrous rail accident! Howrah- Mumbai mail derails in Chakradharpur division in Jharkhand today early morning, multiple deaths and huge number of injuries are the tragic consequences. I seriously ask: is this governance? This series of nightmares almost every week, this unending procession of deaths and injuries on railway tracks: for how long shall we tolerate this? Will there be no end to the callousness of Government of India?! My heart goes out to the bereaved families, condolences to the next of kin,” Banerjee wrote on X.