A three-member team of Bihar government officials has been sent to Kanpur to coordinate with the local authorities and help with the rescue of passengers from the State who were travelling in the Indore-Patna Express that derailed early Sunday morning. The team — Pratayay Amrit, principal secretary of the State disaster management department, Rial IG Amit Kumar and Inspector General Jitendra Kumar — is being flown to Kanpur by a special plane.
Chief Minister Nitish Kumar is monitoring the situation as most of the passengers in the ill-fated train were from Bihar. In the wake of the tragedy, Mr. Kumar cancelled a function to release a report card of his government on completion of one year in office and expressed grief over the mishap that has claimed over 100 lives.
Some of the injured persons from Bihar have also been admitted to a private hospital in Kanpur.
Three from Bihar confirmed dead
The deaths of three persons from Bihar — Mala Devi, Suresh Kumar and Ratnika Singh — were confirmed.
Navin Kumar Tiwari, Prakash Kumar, Rekha Devi, Mukesh Kumar, Parsu ram, Madan Kumar, Pramod, Sunil, Ravindra Pandit, Aaashi, Alok Kumar, Ramu, Priti Singh, Sanjit Kumar, Abhay Shrivastva, Uttam Kumar, Malti Sharma were among those injured.
Railway officials say that 173 passengers were from Bihar, “though the figure may go up."
One of passengers from Bihar, Vikas Kumar, recounted the horrible accident. Mr. Kumar, who works as Probationary Officer (PO) in a bank, was on Berth no; 28 in A1 coach and was on his way to his native in Bhojpur to attend a wedding.
“All of a sudden at 3.10 in the morning I fell down from my berth with a loud thud…after some time, there was lot of screaming and crying from other compartments…it was pitch dark outside and I came to know that the train has derailed…Thankfully I came out alive and on my way to the village”, he said.
