21 BOGIES OF 12506 NE DERAILED NEAR RAGHUNATHPUR RAILWAY STATION, FOUR DIED, OVER 100 INJURED

21 BOGIES OF 12506 NE DERAILED NEAR RAGHUNATHPUR RAILWAY STATION, FOUR DIED, OVER 100 INJURED

12-OCT-ENG 1

RAJIV NAYAN AGRAWAL

BUXAR-----------------------12506 North-East Superfast from Anand Vihar terminal to Kamakhya derailed near Raghunathpur railway station under Danapur rail division of East Central Railway (ECR), Hajipur at about 9.50pm on October 11, 2023 in Buxar district and also damaged several electric polls and wires. 10 persons reportedly are said to be killed while over 100 persons injured though the SDO Dumraon confirmed only 4 dead. The injured were admitted to different hospitals at Patgna, Buxar and Ara. Local police, officials of Buxar district administration, local residents rushed to the spot for rescue. DRM, Danapur, D K Chaudhary, RPF Inspector, Deepak Kumar, Senior DCM Saraswati Chand, D K Panada along with other senior officials of arrived at the spot with medical relief train. One more medical relief train has been sent to Raghunathpur. Even a local pilot is injured in the accident. The Buxar and Ara railway stations have been sounded alert after the incident. The railway officials are engaged in rescuing the passengers and also to clear the rail track so that movement of trains could be restored. In the meantime, a video from drone showed that the bogies are lying on the rail track like toys within a radius of one kilometer and even after 15 hours of the incident, not a single coach could be removed from the rail track. Over 300 employees of the NDRF and the railway are engaged in clearing the track with the help of two big cranes and JCB machines. GM, ECR, Tarun Prakash ordered high level inquiry into the rail incident. Sabotage suspected as the rail track was found broken at different places and tampering with rail tracks cannot be ruled out.

Rail SP A S Thakur said that he had no information about casualty though some passengers are injured. Running of trains has been interrupted and several trains stranded at different railway stations while routes of some trains are diverted.

It is feared that the derailment took place due to track breakage. After the accident, the rail track torn up to two feet. On the other hand, the guard of the train said that at the time of accident, the train was running at a speed of 120 kilometers per hour. Suddenly the brakes applied and the train derailed. He said that four bogies of the train passed through the curve near Pole Number 629/8 and after that one by one all the 21 bogies of the trail derailed of which four AC bogies overturned. Just half an hour before the arrival of this train, a passenger train 03210 had passed through the track.

Reportedly, the NE started from Buxar railway station moved towards Ara at great speed and as the train reached near Raghunathpur railway station, five AC bogies abruptly overturned on the platform while five other bogies derailed in which two male, one female and a five year old girl child were killed. Deepak Bhandari 39 of Assam along with his wife Usha Bhandari 33 and twin girls Akriti 8 and Aditi 8 were going to New Jalpaigudi from Anand Vihar terminal in the economy MI AC bogie. As the train derailed near Raghunathpur railway station, Usha Bhandari along with her daughter Akriti were threw out of the bogie due to jerk and died on spot. Deepak Bhandari and his daughter Aditi are injured and were admitted to the Raghunathpur Community Health Centre.

It was said that at the time of accident, some passengers were taking their meal while some had gone to the bed. As the train derailed, the passengers in the bogies started rolling down in the bogies for a long time. Mohammad Nasir who was going to Kishanganj from Delhi had gone to sleep after having dinner. Suddenly the brakes were applied and people started falling down from their berth and his brother Abu Zahid 27 died before his eye. Hearing the screams and noses, the local rushed to the spot and along with the railway passengers, started searching for their loved ones in the light of mobiles and torches. After an hour, a team of local administration reached and arranged generator and then rescue operation could be intensified. At about 1.30am, a rescue team of railway from Patna along with NDRF and SDRF arrived at the incident site and rushed the injured to the hospitals

At the direction of the BJP national president, J P Nadda, the Buxar MP Ashwini Choubey went to the incident site and knew about the incident. Vijay Sinha, leader opposition party, arrived at the Patna Medical College and Hospital to take notice of the injured persons there.

The Chief Minister, Bihar, Nitish Kumar expressed deepest grief over the death of four persons and injuries to over 100 passengers in the train accident and announced Rs. 4 lakh ex-gratia to the family members of the deceased and Rs. 50,000 to the injured persons. He also said that the district administration is on its leg and all possible help is being provided.

Even the railway announced Rs. 10 lakh ex-gratia to each deceased family and Rs. 50,000 to each injured persons.

Meanwhile, 03230 Patna-Puri Special, 03617 Bhabhuar Road Express Special, 03620 Sasaram-Ara Special, 03203 Patna-DDU Memu Special, 03375 Patna-Buxar Memu Special, 03247 Danapur-Bengaluru Superfast Special and 13424 Ajmer-Bhagalpur Express to come on October 14 are cancelled while routes of 21 trains including Bhagalpur-Anand Vihar Garib Rath, Raxaul-Lokmanya Tilak Karmbhumi Express, Dibrugarh-New Delhi Rajdhani Express, Lokmanya Tilak-Patna Express, Farakka Express have been diverted.

Meanwhile, the railway issued helpline numbers such as 7759070004 of Common Control Room, 9771449971 of Patna, 8905697493 of Danapur, 8306182542 of Ara, 0571-2409348 of Aligarh railway station, 7525001249 of Itawa railway station, 05612-220337/38/39 of Tundala railway station, 0512-2323015/16/18 of Kanpur railway station, 0532-2408128, 2407353,2408149 of Prayagraj railway station and 05182-222025/26, 222436 of Fatehpur railway station.