The incident, which occurred on Thurday at around 2.27 am, is the eighth train accident since October last year.
The safety of Indian Railways was once again put to question on Thursday with the derailment of eight coaches of Jabalpur-Nizamuddin Mahakaushal Express in Mahoba district of Uttar Pradesh. The incident, which occurred on Thurday at around 2.27 am, is the eighth train accident since October last year. While the Railway Ministry claimed that 13 people were injured in the accident, local authorities said at least 52 people were injured. Earlier in the day, Minister of State for Railways Manoj Sinha said there were reports of 21 people being injured, but later in the evening, Railways issued a statement saying 12 people suffered simple injuries and one passenger suffered grievous injuries in the accident.
Though the exact reason of the mishap could not be ascertained, prima facie, a crack in the rail tracks seemed to be the cause. Sinha said that according to the Divisional Railway Manager, prima facie fresh weld failure on the left side caused the derailment. Fresh weld means it was not an old crack, and that the crack developed suddenly and could not be detected.
Some TV channels reported that the Anti-Terrorist Squad suspected the derailment to be the handwork of terrorists, but DNA could not independently verify this. Railways ordered an inquiry into the accident, which left 400 metres of track damaged. Railway Board member (traffic) Mohd Jamshed said the inquiry would ascertain the cause of accident. Asked whether it was an act of sabotage or if any defect in the rolling stock led to the mishap, Jamshed said nothing can be ruled out till the report is submitted. Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath also directed Principal Secretary (Home) and the state’s Director General of Police (DGP) to apprise him of the reasons behind the derailment.
The bogies that derailed were four AC coaches, two second-class general coaches, one sleeper-class coach and one passenger-cum-luggage-cum-guard coach. All the coaches that derailed were conventional coaches, ones that tend to climb over each other. In the wake of the series of accidents, Railways had announced that it would replace traditional coaches with modern ones, but sources in railways say that the procedure will still take some time.
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