At least 500 passengers travelling on the Howrah-bound Rajdhani Express (2302) from New Delhi had a narrow escape from a major train tragedy on Monday morning when its engine derailed near the Baruipara railway station in Hooghly. No passenger was hurt and none of the coaches got derailed.
Ruling out any sabotage into the derailment the railway ministry has ordered a probe. “The derailment took place at around 9.20 am when the two front wheels from the express train’s engine jumped off the track. More than 500 passengers were on board to the train,” said chief public relations officer of the Eastern Railway (ER) Samir Goswami.
It was running at speed of 128 km per hour then, recalled train driver Mahendra Singh. “Soon after I heard a defeaning sound I pulled the emergency brake to stop the train,” he said. Chief Operations Manager (ER) Ambarish Gupta, one of the passengers on board, went down to look into what happened.
“The two wheels were found to have derailed damaging a stretch of around 1.7 kms along the tracks. The site of derailment was around 500 metres away from the Baruipara station,” said general manager(ER) V N Tripathy. At least 300 pandrol clips were found to have been removed from the railway tracks after the derailment, Mr Goswami added.
This had led the railway officials initially to suspect sabotage. Senior officials including divisional railway manager (Howrah) Partha Sarathi Mondal rushed to the site, 27 kms away from Howrah. Meanwhile a relief train left Howrah at around 10.27 am for Baruipara to rescue the stranded passengers. “When the train stopped with a massive jerk, I first thought of stone-pelting because the window panes got smashed. My son was on the window side. I removed him for cover. Later I came to know of the derailment,” narrated a female passenger who alongwith others were ferried to the city in the afternoon.
In the preliminary investigations the possibility of ant sabotage has been ruled. “Prima facie the removal of the pandrol clips was the impact of the derailment and not its cause. The clips flung off the tracks due to the mammoth pressure of the train’s halt after the driver applied the emergency brake. So far no involvement of any sabotage has been found,” explained Mr Tripathy.
Echoing him DGP(rail) Dilip Mitra said, “Our officers did not find any sabotage during investigation. The signalling system functioned properly.”
Mr Tripathy informed that an inquiry team comprising of four senior railway officials has been formed to probe cause of the derailment.