Jamshedpur: Railway authorities of Chakradharpur division and Garden Reach, the headquarters of South Eastern Railway, have remained tight-lipped about yesterday’s tragic rail mishap involving the Howrah-Mumbai Mail at Barabambo. The incident, which killed two passengers and injured numerous others, occurred when the train derailed after hitting the wagons of a goods train that had already derailed earlier at the same spot.
It was learned that the driver of the goods train had informed the signaling staff about the derailment of the wagons before the Howrah-Mumbai Mail, bound for Mumbai, encountered the same fate, resulting in a major accident.
Aditya Kumar Chaudhury, Senior Divisional Commercial Manager of Chakradharpur division and spokesperson, refrained from commenting on the cause of the mishap. “The Commissioner of Railway Safety has initiated a probe. We will be in a position to say anything when the probe gets completed,” he said. He added that necessary actions would be taken based on the probe report.
In the tragic incident, two passengers lost their lives, and several others were injured when at least 18 coaches of the Howrah-Mumbai Mail derailed. The accident occurred near Barabambo, approximately 85 kilometers from Jamshedpur, at 3:40 am on Tuesday.
The derailment involved 18 of the 22 coaches of the 12810 Howrah-Mumbai Mail via Nagpur, including 16 passenger coaches, one power car, and one pantry car.
As a result of the derailment of the 12810 Howrah-CSMT Mumbai Mail, several trains were canceled for the second consecutive day today.
List of Canceled Trains
– 08163/08164 Chakradharpur-Rourkela-
– 12768 Santragachi-Nanded Express
– 08602 Hatia-Tatanagar Special
– 08195 Tatanagar-Hatia Special (canceled on August 1)
– 18190 Ernakulam-Tatanagar Express (canceled on August 1)
– 18114 Bilaspur-Tatanagar Express (canceled today)
– 12872 Titlagarh-Howrah Express (canceled today)
Short Termination
– 18011 Howrah-Chakradharpur Express, journey commencing today, will be short-terminated at Adra.
Restoration
– 13287 Durg-Ara Express, journey commencing today, which was initially decided to short-terminate at Jharsuguda, will now run on the normal route instead of short-terminating at Jharsuguda.
The bi-directional 3rd line is tentatively planned to be made operational today. The other two lines are planned to be made operational in due course.
Anil Kumar Mishra, General Manager of South Eastern Railway, and Arun Jatoh Rathod, Divisional Railway Manager of Chakradharpur, along with principal officers of SER and senior officers from the Railway Board, were present at the site to oversee the restoration of services.
