Work is going at war footing to restore the train services after twenty-three coaches of the Assam-bound North East Superfast Express (12506) derailed in Buxar district of Bihar on late on October 11. The primary investigation suggests that cracks in the railway track are the possible cause of the derailment, although railway officials have denied this on record.
Railways Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw and Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar announced an ex-gratia of ₹10 lakh and ₹4 lakh each respectively to the family members of deceased, and ₹50,000 each to those injured.
Speaking to The Hindu, Buxar District Magistrate Anshul Agarwal had confirmed four casualties.
The train left the Anand Vihar terminal in Delhi at 7.40 a.m. on October 11, and was en route to Tinsukia in Assam. The incident occurred at 9:53 p.m. near the Raghunathpur railway station.
Asked about the latest update, East Central Railway (ECR) Chief Public Relations Officer (CPRO), Birendra Kumar said, “In the ECR region, 95 trains have been diverted and 31 were cancelled, 5 terminated and 2 trains were rescheduled. Work is going on at war footing to restore the train services, by late evening one line would be made functional.”
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Tarun Prakash, General Manager (GM) of ECR, said that the cause of derailment is yet to be ascertained as investigation was underway by the railway. He also stressed that that it is too early to say anything on reason behind derailment when asked about crack in the track could be the possible reason. He pointed out that the railway has its own way of investigating such cases.
However, another official senior official of the ECR hinted that the cracks in the tracks could be the possible cause of the derailment.
Suvomoy Mitra, Commissioner of Railway Safety (CRS) Eastern Circle has been assigned the job to investigate the derailment case.
The deceased were identified as Usha Bhandari (33), her daughter Aakriti Bhandari (8), Abu Zaid (68) and Narendra (70). Usha Bhandari and Aakriti Bhandari were residents of Assam’s Tinsukia whereas Abu Zaid was resident of the Kishanganj district of Bihar. From which place the fourth deceased hails is not yet known.
Politics also entered into the train tragedy when Bihar Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) president Samrat Choudhary took a dig at Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar.
While speaking to the journalist after reaching the spot where the train was derailed, Mr. Choudhary said, “The rescue and restoration work is being carried out by the Central Government including the treatment of the injured passengers. Bihar CM Nitish Kumar’s reaction came after 12 hours and he is doing politics over the train tragedy.”
On Thursday morning Mr. Kumar had expressed deep grief of the incident followed by announcing the ex gratia. Mr. Kumar said that he was railway minister at the time of Atal Bihar Vajpayee government and did a lot of work towards the passenger’s safety due to which the number of such cases had gone down, now the present government at the Centre must work on this front.
Treatments of the injured passengers are going on in different hospitals including All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), Patna where leader of Opposition in Bihar legislative assembly Vijay Kumar Sinha had visited this morning to meet injured passengers.
Deepak Bhandari who lost his wife and daughter expressed his pain saying that it was hard to believe that they are no more in this world.
“We were going to Jalpaiguri from New Delhi but this accident took place in which I lost my wife and daughter,” Mr. Bhandari said while accompanied by his second daughter Aditi Bhandari whose treatment is underway at Raghunathpur Primary Health Centre.
