The Tribune, Chandigarh, India

Sunday, June 24, 2001, Chandigarh, India

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Train mishap toll 60

One of the victims being removed from a compartment by the local residents and rescue operators near Kozhikode on Saturday. — PTI photo

Kozhikode, June 23
The death toll in yesterday’s train accident involving the Mangalore-Chennai Mail rose to 60 with five more bodies fished out of the coaches submerged in the Kadalundi river today, even as rescue and relief operations were intensified. Of them, 46 victims have so far been identified.

The post-mortem examination of the bodies was carried out in Medical College Hospital, which witnessed heart-rending scenes of distraught relatives waiting to claim the bodies of their dear ones.

Officials indicated the possibility of some more bodies lying trapped in the submerged coaches and efforts were still on to cut through the steel to bring them out.

Over 350 persons were injured in the accident. While 257 are being treated in various hospitals, many of them with grievous wounds, the others left after receiving first aid.

Of the 257 persons undergoing treatment, the condition of 14 admitted to the Kozhikode Medical College Hospital, is said to be serious.

NEW DELHI: Sinking of a pier on the Kadalundi bridge, coupled with sub-grade geological activity due to heavy rains is prima facie suspected to be the cause of the Mangalore-Chennai Mail derailment near Kozhikode yesterday, a railway spokesperson said here today.

However, the spokesperson denied that the bridge, which is almost hundred-year-old was “distressed”. The bridge had 12 spans, each being 19.5-metre long and was founded on screw piles.

The Indian Railways is replacing all the bridges founded on screw piles in phased manner. Furthermore, the Calicut-Shovanur route was being doubled and all bridges being renovated. Also, a new bridge was already under construction close to the bridge where the train derailed. UNI

50 feared drowned as boat capsizes

Malda (West Bengal), June 23
More than 50 persons were feared drowned when a large motorised country boat overturned midstream in the swollen Ganges near Eksatichar in West Bengal’s Malda district this morning, District Magistrate Ajit Ranjan Bardhan said.

The overcrowded boat, heavily laden with grain, paddy and vegetables, overturned when a wave swamped and disabled the engine and swept away the rudder and the steersman and his assistant, DIG (Malda Range) P.K. Roy, who was supervising rescue operations at Manickchawk said.

The District Magistrate said the bodies of two children were recovered, while two others were declared brought dead to the hospital.

Stating that the boat had not less than 150 passengers, Mr Bardhan said other countryboats in the river rescued 75 of them. The police were scouring the waters in launches and five boats for bodies, while all police stations on the banks of the river had been alerted.

The Farraka barrage authorities had also been asked to look out for the bodies and prevent them from being swept away to neighbouring Bangladesh, Mr Bardhan said.

According to the DIG, the boat set sail from Palashgachi village under Rajmahal police station in Jharkhand for the weekly market at Mathurapur haat. PTI