Train derails in Bengal, no casualties

HOWRAH: It was a narrow escape for passengers travelling in 11 sleeper class coaches of the 12381 Up Howrah-New Delhi Poorva Express on Sunday morning after the train derailed soon after leaving Howrah at 8.15am. A few people received minor injuries and were administered first aid at the Liluah station, about four km from Howrah. Eastern Railway (ER) arranged a special train for the passengers that started for New Delhi from Howrah at 3 pm.
“The cause of the accident is being looked into. As per directives of the Commissioner of Railway Safety, a five member enquiry committee has been set up comprising Senior Administrative Grade (SAG) officers. The Chief Safety Officer of ER will head the committee,” said R K Gupta, general manager, ER, who visited the accident site with all senior officers. The accident comes at a time when ER and other zonal railways have been directed by the Ministry of Railways to give top priority to passenger safety.
Sources in ER, however, revealed that the accident occurred due to a technical problem at the ‘Diamond Crossing’ over which the Poorva Express was moving. The railway yard outside Howrah has several such crossover points used by trains to move from one track to the other. It is fortunate for passengers that the train was moving at very slow speed. Had the derailment occurred at high speed passengers may have suffered serious injuries.
“The train left Howrah at 8.15 am and crossed the rail yard. At 8.27 am, it reached the Diamond Crossing at Curve No 5 outside Liluah station. The ‘point’ was set for the Up Chord line (Line 5). Something went wrong immediately after the train reached the crossing. The locomotive and a brake-cum-luggage van managed to reach Line 5 when there was a loud noise and 11 sleeper class coaches (S1 to S11) and the pantry car jumped the rails and started moving towards Line 4 and the Liluah platform,” an ER source said.
Line 4 is the Down Chord line over which trains move towards Howrah. Loco pilot Jishnu Nandi was waiting with his goods train on this line for the Poorva Express to cross. He heard the noise and spotted a large clod of dust. Without thinking twice, he pulled out his red flasher and flag and rushed towards the stricken train. He flashed the lamp at the locomotive of the Poorva Express and waved the flag frantically. By then, A K Singh, loco pilot of the Poorva Express had felt the jerk as well. The moment he spotted Nandi flashing the lamp and waving the flag, he applied emergency brakes. The derailed compartments had been dragged for a few hundred metres by then. When they finally came to a stop, some were less than a 100 yards from the locomotive of the goods train. Some had even crashed into the edge of the platform of Liluah station, causing damage.
What followed was complete pandemonium. ER staff and locals from Liluah made a dash towards the derailed coaches while passengers wailed and screamed inside. It took a while for the dust to settle. Over a hundred concrete sleepers lay in pieces around the site and the tracks were a mangled mess. Some of the ballast (stones), used to weigh down the tracks, had been flung several hundred yards away. It took a few minutes for ER’s Accident Relief Train (ART) to reach the site and passengers were evacuated from the affected coaches. An emergency medical camp was set up at Liluah station and passengers were accommodated in the waiting room and offices. Later, another ART from South Eastern Railway also arrived at the spot.
ER officials weren’t too forthcoming in providing details of the accident. While locals claimed that they saw trackmen working near the Diamond Crossing minutes before the Poorva Express arrived, ER has officially denied this.
“I was on my way to the market and while crossing the tracks spotted some people working near the place where the derailment occurred. I can’t say whether they were railway workers though. They scattered on spotting the Poorva Express and couldn’t be seen after that,” said Debapriya Roy, a resident of Liluah. Another source in ER said that it is possible that trackmen were repairing the point when it was hastily set for Line 5. The repairs may not have been complete and the coaches got derailed when the train attempted to cross.
ER officials maintained that they took proper care of the passengers of the affected Poorva Express. “We arranged lunch for them and got them proper berths in the special train. In the evening, they were served tea and snacks,” said R N Mahapatra, CPRO, ER. In the evening the general manager paid another visit to the accident site to monitor the progress of restoration work. While the Up Chord line got restored by 7 pm, it took till later in the night to run normal services in the Down Chord line. Thousands of commuters suffered during the day as train services in the Howrah-Burdwan Chord line remained irregular. Several long distance trains were also affected.