At least two persons were killed and eight others injured on Thursday after several coaches of the Chandigarh-Dibrugarh express train derailed in Uttar Pradesh’s Gonda district, the Indian Railways said.
The incident occurred near the Gonda Junction station at 2.37 pm, it said in a statement. Four to five coaches from the front of the train derailed, it said in an earlier bulletin.
The train was travelling from Chandigarh to Assam’s Dibrugarh.
A high-level enquiry has been ordered into the matter, ANI quoted the railway ministry as saying.
Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Adityanath said that the district administration had been directed to carry out relief and rescue operations on a war-footing and “to take the injured to the hospital on top priority and provide them proper treatment”.
A 40-member medical team with 15 ambulances was at the site of the accident, with more relief on the way, NDTV reported.
Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said that the state government was in touch with the relevant authorities.
This came after a goods train collided with the Sealdah-bound Kanchanjunga Express near the New Jalpaiguri railway station in West Bengal’s Darjeeling district on June 17, killing 10 persons.
In a preliminary report on the West Bengal accident, Chief Commissioner of Railway Safety Janak Kumar Garg said that inadequate training of loco pilots and station masters, and the absence of critical safety equipment such as walkie-talkies may have led to the collision of the two trains.
In June 2023, 288 passengers were killed and around 900 injured when three trains collided with each other in Odisha’s Balasore. This was one of the worst train accidents in India.
The Indian Railways subsequently said that the Kavach, an anti-train collision system, was not available on the route in Balasore where the accident took place.
The Kavach sounds an alert when a loco pilot jumps a railway signal, a leading cause of train collisions. It automatically activates the train braking system if the driver fails to control the train as per the speed restrictions.
Corrections and clarifications: This article has been edited to reflect the latest toll. The earlier version had cited a PTI report that quoted Uttar Pradesh’s deputy chief minister as having given a higher figure.
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