JAJPUR ROAD (ORISSA): Within hours after railway minister Lalu Prasad gloated over his safety record during his budget speech in Parliament on Friday, one of the country’s flagship expresses crashed out of its tracks.
Sixteen passengers were killed and 161 injured when 13 bogies of the Chennai-bound Coromandel Express from Howrah derailed while changing tracks in Orissa's Jajpur district.
General manager East Coast Railway Ajay Kumar Goel confirmed the casualties and said that 13 bogies of express train, which was running at a high speed, derailed just after it passed through the Jajpur Road railway station with the engine overturning last evening.
Goel who inspected the accident site told PTI that of the 13 bogies, 11 were sleeper class and two general.
Director General of Police Manmohan Praharaj said that the accident occurred while the express train was changing tracks outside the station.
The engine of the train went onto one track and capsized, while the bogies which remained on another derailed and scattered in all directions, he said.
Passengers who were on the train spoke of feeling a number of sharp jerks moments before the accident at around 8:00 pm suggesting that the driver applied the brakes.
The wheels and springs of the bogies lay in all directions 200 to 300 metre away from the spot, a PTI correspondent on the scene saw. One of the 13 bogies had climbed onto another.
Rescue teams were engaged in the operations on a war footing equipped with gas cutters under the supervision of senior railway, police and district administration officials.
Though rescue operations were initially affected due to the darkness, flood lights were rigged up soon.
Orissa Disaster Rapid Action Force (ODRAF) teams joined the rescue operation with high-tech equipment.
Before the police arrived on the scene volunteers at the Satyasai Seva Sadan nearby who were at prayer at the time rushed to the accident spot.
Local people also arrived on the spot armed with ladders. They broke open compartment windows and pulled out dazed passengers.
East Coast Railway general manager A K Goyal along with senior railway officials rushed to the site, while Railway Board chairman S S Khurana was likely to visit the spot.
As directed by Orissa Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik, Finance minister Prafulla Ghadai and Women and Child Development minister Pramila Mallick, both of whom belong to Jajpur district, rushed to the site.
Lalu Prasad Yadav said he would order a probe and despatched minister of state R Velu to the spot. The ministry announced compensation of Rs 5 lakh and a job to families of those killed, and Rs 50,000 for the injured. The death toll could rise, officials feared, since many passengers were still trapped in the overturned coaches.
"Suddenly there was a lurch and a screeching sound, as if brakes had been applied. The train shook violently from side to side and we were thrown off our berths," said Rajendra Singh, a passenger in S-5 coach, who survived unscathed.
"There was a tumbling sensation as everything seemed to be turning upside down. After what seemed a long time, the rolling and screeching stopped," he said over phone from the accident spot. The badly damaged coaches were S-1 to S-3 and S-6 to S-8, he added.
Soruce: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Coromandel-Express-derails-16-dead/articleshow/4127949.cms
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