23 die as 8 coaches derail in UP

Shahira Naim

Tribune News Service

Lucknow, August 19

Twenty-three persons were killed and over 60 injured when at least eight coaches of the Haridwar-bound 18477 Utkal Express derailed at the Khatauli railway station, 25 km from Muzaffarnagar, in western Uttar Pradesh this evening. The train, headed from Puri in Odisha to Haridwar in Uttarakhand, was to reach its destination at 9 pm.

Rescuers and local people struggled for hours to pull out survivors from the overturned and mangled coaches, some piled on top of each other. 

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Two NDRF teams of 50 persons each and sniffer dogs reached the crash site for rescue operations. At least 65 ambulances from Meerut and Saharanpur were pressed into service. The injured were taken to the Medical College Hospital, Meerut, and the Muzaffarnagar District Hospital.

Union Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu has ordered an inquiry to ascertain the cause of the mishap, even as an Anti-Terror Squad team has rushed to the site.

Read: Here are major train accidents in the country in recent past

While Prabhu announced Rs 3.5 lakh for the next of kin of the deceased and Rs 50,000 for each of the seriously injured, UP Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, who sent Cabinet Ministers Satish Mahana and Suresh Rana to the site, announced Rs 2 lakh each for the families of the deceased and Rs 50,000 for the injured.

Prabhu later tweeted: “Rescue operations have been completed. All injured shifted to hospital. Restoration work will start now. Still monitoring situation closely.”

रेल हादसे में घायल यात्रियों का समुचित इलाज होगा, हर संभव मदद पहुंचाने के निर्देश दे दिए गए है।

— Yogi Adityanath (@myogiadityanath) August 19, 2017

Sources said the S2 sleeper coach jumped the tracks and smashed into a house along the railway line. The house owner, whose father had a narrow escape, told a TV channel the track was being repaired since morning without the railway staff putting up the mandatory notice.

Have instructed Chairman Rly Board,Member Traffic to oversee rescue and relief operations.I am personally monitoring situation

— Suresh Prabhu (@sureshpprabhu) August 19, 2017

He said the train approached at full speed and its driver had clearly not been informed about the damaged track. The worst hit was the pantry car which was reduced to mangled bits of steel.

The accident site is a stone’s throw from the Khatauli Kotwali police station. A large number of locals were the first to start rescue work after the accident occurred around 5.45 pm. Despite the police arriving there, it were the locals who arranged for the first gas-cutter from a sugar mill in the vicinity.

“Extremely pained by the derailment of the Utkal Express in Muzaffarnagar. My thoughts are with the families of the deceased,” PM Narendra Modi tweeted.

#WATCH: Visuals from the train derailment site in Muzaffarnagar's Khatauli; 6 coaches have derailed. More details awaited #UttarPradesh pic.twitter.com/AiNdfKV7oS

— ANI UP (@ANINewsUP) August 19, 2017

Congress president Sonia Gandhi expressed concern over the increasing number of train accidents.

Following the derailment, three trains  — 14521/14522 Ambala-Delhi-Ambala Intercity Express, 18478 Haridwar-Puri Utkal Kalinga Express and 14682 Jalandhar-New Delhi Intercity Express — which were to commence journey tomorrow, had been cancelled. Besides, six others had been diverted, the Railway Ministry said.

(With agency inputs)