Although the three coaches that got derailed included one parcel coach and two passenger coaches, there had been no report of casualty or injury as yet, confirmed the chief public relations officer (CPRO) of South Eastern Railways, Om Prakash Charan.
The derailment happened while the train was changing its track from the middle line to the downline. “Buses were arranged so that the passengers could be brought back to the destination,” Charan said in a video statement issued on Saturday morning.
However, railway sources said that because of the derailment, normal railway services on that particular line were hampered to a great extent in the early morning hours Saturday. They said that the express train was running at around 40 kilometres per hour when the derailment took place.
“Fortunately, the train's speed was low at the time when the derailment took place at around 5.31 a.m. Senior officials of the South Eastern Railways rushed to the spot on getting the information of the derailment,” confirmed a railways official.
Railways sources further said that an accident relief train from Santragachi station and a medical relief train from Kharagpur station were rushed to the spot of derailment for the purposes of assistance. An investigation has started to track the reason behind the derailment.
Last year, as many as 296 persons were killed after Coromandel Express collided with a stationary goods train at Bahanaga Bazar station in Odisha.
Again in June 2024, a total of 11 persons were killed after Sealdah-Agartala Kanchanjunga Express collided with a goods train from behind near Rangapani railway station in Darjeeling district of West Bengal.
Signalling error was identified as the reason for the accident in both cases.
(IANS)
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