Seventeen coaches of the Mumbai-bound train detached – including a pantry car and a power car – in the accident between Barabamboo and Raj Kharsawan railway stations, throwing fast-asleep passengers from their berths, officials said.
Train falls off track as engine hits derailed goods wagon
A railway official said the freight train loaded with clinker (used for making cement) was headed to Jamshedpur from Rourkela. “Around 3.43am, the mail train’s engine hit the 20th wagon of the goods train on the down line,” he said.
South Eastern Railways (SER) general manager Anil Kumar Mishra said the goods train pilot had dragged the derailed wagon for nearly a km, possibly unaware that something was wrong. “The engine of Mumbai Mail suffered a side collision with the 20th wagon of the freight train,” he said.
While the mail train’s driver slammed his high-speed brakes and brought the speed down to 50 kmph, the sudden braking and collision was enough to cause its bogies to detach and fall, officials suspected.
Om Prakash Charan, chief public relations officer of SER, said the loco-pilot and the assistant loco-pilot escaped with minor injuries which occurred after the impact of the collision broke the engine’s windshield.
SER officials said the two deceased men, P Bikash Kumar and Ajit Kumar Samal, had planned to take a different night train to Rourkela but missed it and ended up boarding the ill-fated Mumbai Mail instead. “They were standing near the toilet area in the three-tier coach B4 when the collision occurred,” a senior zonal official said.
Most passengers were sleeping and were thrown from their berths, leading to injuries. “There was a collision sound and the coach leaned and then fell. I jumped off the berth to run out and found fellow passengers dazed and scared,” said Saurabh Kumar, a passenger in one of the derailed AC coaches. He was travelling to Raipur from Howrah.
Arvind Singh, cook in the pantry car, said when the collision happened the pots fell over him. “By the time I could realise what had happened the bogie got derailed. I panicked and ran for safety with burn injuries,” he said.
Locals of Potobera village, who live a kilometre from the railway tracks, alerted nearby Amda police station. “Police and local administration transported 10 seriously injured passengers to Chakradharpur railway hospital while the remaining passengers were sent in a special train going to Mumbai,” general manager Mishra said.
Both Railways and Jharkhand govt announced ex gratia payment for the kin of the deceased and financial support for the treatment of the injured.
CM Hemant Soren took to X to announce Rs 2 lakh from the state coffers for the kin of those killed and Rs 50,000 for the injured. His colleagues in INDIA bloc demanded the resignation of railway minister Ashwani Vaishnav and criticised Railways for its failure to ensure the safety of passengers
The derailment and collision shut down the busy Howrah-Mumbai railway route since Tuesday morning. By evening, over 62 trains were cancelled, 11 trains short terminated and 28 diverted to alternative routes. “Restoration of the railway tracks will take 18-20 more hours,” general manager Mishra added.
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