Fatal Train Accident Killed Over 70 Passengers in West Bengal, 150 Injured

As many as 70 people were killed and more than hundred others injured in yet another deadliest train accident on Early Monday.

The incident took place after the stationary Bhagalpur-Ranchi Vananchal Express was hit from behind by the speeding Sealdah-bound Uttarbanga Express at Sainthia station in Birbhum district of West Bengal.




48 bodies have been pulled out of the badly mangled coaches of Vananchal Express till now. The death toll is likely to mount further as rescue operation is still underway.

Helpline Numbers


Eastern Railway has opened control rooms following the accident. The stations and their phone numbers are-

Sealdah-033-23503535,  033-23503535,  033-23503537 and 033-23503537

Malda-06436-222061, 06436-222061

Bhagalpur - 06412-4222433

Jamalpur - 063444-3101


Birbhum District Magistrate Soumitra Mohan confirmed the death of 48 passengers, which includes the driver MC Dey and assistant driver NK Mnadal of the Uttarbanga Express and the guard of the Vananchal Express A Mukherjee.




Railway minister Mamata Banerjee, Chairman of Railway Board Vivek Sahay, Railway Board Member (Electrical) Sudesh Kumar and Director General of Railway Health Service B K Ramteke, Eastern Railway General Manager V N Tripathy and other senior officials have left for Sainthia. She has ordered an inquiry into the mishap. Eastern Railway Safety Commissioner Arti Yadav will lead the probe.

Vananchal Express was running several hours behind the scheduled time of 20.54 pm and was about to leave the station when the accident occurred.


The scheduled arrival and departure of Uttarbanga Express at Sainthia was 1.38 am . It was not clearly known why the train, which was to halt at the station, arrived on a high speed.
An Eastern Railway spokesman said the Vananchal Express was standing at platform 4 when the speeding Uttarbanga Express, coming from New Coochbehar, hit it from the rear. Three rear coaches of the Vananchal Express bore the brunt of the collision and were badly mangled. Such was the impact of the collision that one of the coaches went up to the overbridge.


The authorities were using gas-cutters to cut open the coaches and bring out the dead and rescue the injured.

Maoists Hit again on Civilians, 150 Dead, 200 Injured

At least twenty passengers were killed and 150 injured when suspected Maoists blasted rail tracks in West Midnapore district early today derailing 13 coaches of a Mumbai-bound express train, five of which were hit by a speeding goods train. 

Twenty of the bodies were extricated from the mangled coaches of the Howrah-Kurla Lokmanya Tilak Gyaneshwari Super Deluxe Express after the 13 coaches derailed with five toppling over an adjacent track, Additional Superintendent of Police, Jhargram, Mukesh Kumar said. 

In New Delhi, Union Home Secretary G K Pillai told PTI that 65 passengers were killed and 200 injured and the toll might go up. 

"We suspect Maoist hand behind the blast," Vivek Sahai, Member (Traffic), Railway Board, said. 

The blast occurred at 1:30 am when the train was running between Khemasoli and Sardiya stations, about 135 km from here, South Eastern Railway officials said. 

SER PRO Soumitra Majumdar said that the express train had in all 24 coaches. After the explosion, 13 including 10 sleeper coaches, derailed of which five were hit by the goods train coming on the opposite track. 

An unreserved coach, the pantry car and luggage van also derailed, he said. 

Railway officials used gas cutter to extricate trapped passengers and bodies from the mangled remains of the affected coaches. Passengers belongings lay strewn scattered on the tracks. 

Angry passengers said the first signs of relief came only around 5 am, three-and-a-half hours after the incident. 

Nine of the coaches which were undamaged took the injured and the other passengers to Kharagpur where they were admitted to hospital. 

Sahai said that railway had were in touch with the Indian air force to airlift passengers who were seriously injured. 

Anti-Maoist forces were at the spot and assisting the police and rescue personnel in extricating the bodies from four badly damaged sleeper coaches S-5, S-6, S-7 and S-8. 

Railway Minister Mamata Banerjee reached the spot. She announced Rs 5 lakh for the next of kin of each of the dead and Rs 1 lakh for the injured. 

Senior railway officials including Railway Board Chairman S S Khurana and DG RPF rushed to the spot. 

A relief train left Kharagpur with a team of 12 doctors and 20 paramedics as also two doctors from the Kalaikunda airbase, the officials said. 

Helplines have been set up at Kharagpur -- (0322) 255751 and 255735, Howrah - (033) 26382217, besides a toll free number 10722. 

Helplines have also been set up at Tatanagar (0657) 2290324, 2290074, 2290382, at Rourkela (0661) 2511155, Chakradharpur (06587) 238072 and Jharsuguda (06445)

Credit: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com 

Image Credit: http://ndtv.com