Rajdhani Derails; Railway Suspects Sabotage

The Delhi-Dibrugarh Rajdhani Express derailed at Golden Ganj station near Chapra, New Delhi, at around 2.00 am today killing at least 4 passengers and injuring 8. 12 coaches were derailed in the incident, with five coaches, B-1 to B-4 and pantry car overturned and seven other coaches, B-5 to B-10 and power car getting derailed at the station, about 75 kms from Patna, a Railway spokesperson said.

The railway authorities suspect sabotage by Maoists.”Prima facie, it appears to be a case of sabotage. There was a blast on the track, which could have caused the derailment”, Railway Board Chairman Arunendra Kumar told PTI in Delhi. Three passengers died on the spot and another, died in the hospital later, reports say. Eighteen wagons of another goods train, 60 kms away from the station also derailed due to the blast.

Railway has ordered an enquiry to be conducted by the Commissioner Railway Safety, Eastern Circle to learn about the cause of derailment. Railway minister Sadananda Gowda and Minister of State for Railway Manoj Sinha had rushed to the site along with Railway Board Member Traffic, D P Pandey and Member Mechanical, Alok Johri. Gowda expressed grief over the loss of lives in the tragedy and has announced ex-gratia of rupees 2 lakh for the family of each of the deceased, rupees one lakh for the grievously injured passengers and 20 thousand rupees for those with minor injuries, also directing the Railway administration to provide the best treatment to the injured.

Saran District Magistrate Kundan Kumar ruled out the possibility that the accident was caused by Maoists. He told PTI that the mishap seemed to be caused by operational problems and not triggered by Maoists. He told the reporters on the spot that another train Kaviguru Express had crossed the spot safely 15 minutes before Rajdhani Express. Helplines have been set up to provide information to families of the victims and other passengers at Chapra, Samastipur, Hajipur, Sonpur, Barauni, Muzaffarpur, Lucknow, Varanasi, Balia, Guwahati, Dibrugarh, Tinsukia, Mariani, Dimapur, Lumding, New Coochbehar, New Jalpaiguri and Katihar.