Three passengers were killed and 30 others injured when 21 coaches of Chandigarh-Dibrugarh Express derailed near Motiganj in Gonda, 150 km from Lucknow. The train was en route to Dibrugarh in Assam and was 25km from Gonda when the accident occurred.
This is the second fatal rail accident in a month, after a goods train rear-ended Kanchanjungha Express near north Bengal’s New Jalpaiguri station on June 17, resulting in the death of 10 people and injuries to 41 others. There have been several accidents in the past 12 months, including a three-train collision that killed as many as 300 people in Odisha’s Balasore in June last year.
The Chandigarh-Dibrugarh Express’s loco pilot, Tribhuvan Narain, reported hearing a loud sound as the train approached Jhilahi railway station and saw overhead electrical wires swinging wildly, prompting him to apply emergency brakes, which led to the derailment.
At the time of derailment, the train was travelling at 70-80 kmph between Motiganj and Jhilahi stations. Of its 22 coaches, eight were fully derailed and others partially slipped. The Jannayak Express had passed the area about 30 minutes before without reporting any suspicious activity.
In addition to a routine investigation by Commissioner of Railway Safety, a high-level inquiry has been ordered to find the cause of the derailment. No explosives or suspicious items were found at the accident site by the Railway Protection Force sniffer dogs.
