35 killed, 200 injured as Kalka Mail derails

As many as 15 bogies, including the AC compartments, of the the train, which was travelling at a speed of 108 km per hour, jumped rails near the cabin of Malwa railway station around Sunday afternoon, according to railway officials who rushed to the spot, about 55 km from Kanpur.

Officials said that some of the derailed bogies piled on each other making it very difficult for the trapped passengers to get out of them. Gas cutters were brought in to cut into the compartments to bring the passengers out.

Officials said that the rescue workers were finding it difficult to enter two of the derailed bogies. The rescue operations were continuing as many passengers were still trapped inside, they said.

Sources said that three AC, sleeper coaches and the two general compartments were derailed but the general bogie just behind the engine was the worst affected. “It was packed to the capacity” the eyewitnesses said.

Locals rush to help

The locals were the first to start the rescue operations. Many passengers complained that they had to wait for around 30 minutes before the help arrived. “The villagers began pulling out the passengers after a while”, said Bhikki Chaudhary, a passenger in the S-3 Coach.

“The cause of the mishap is being ascertained”, officials involved in rescue operations said adding that the driver of the train had also suffered serious injuries in the mishap. They, however, ruled out over-speeding as a possible cause of the mishap.

Some passengers said that the driver appeared to have applied the emrgency brakes which may have caused the mishap. Relief trains from Kanpur, Allahabad and Delhi had reached the spot and rescue operations were on in full swing, officials said.

The injured were rushed to the district hospital in Fatehpur, about 35 km from the spot while some critcially injured passengers were referred to the Kanpur Medical College hospital by ambulances.

Rescue operations on

The work of shifting the crictically injured passengers was continuing till late Sunday evening and many ambulances were seen taking the wounded to Kanpur for specialised treatment as the facilities of surgeries were not available at the district hospital.

Railway Board Chairman Vinay Mittal along with other members of the Board had also reached the site to supervise the resuce operations. Army personnel, including engineers, from Allahabad and Kanpur had also rushed to help in the relief and rescue operations.

Army choppers were pressed into service to ferry the critically injured passengers to nearby hospitals, said chief medical superintendent of district hospital in Fatehpur Dr K N Joshi while speaking to Deccan Herald.

UP Chief Minister Mayawati announced an ex-gratia relief of Rs one lakh to the next of the kins of the deceased, Rs 50,000 to the seriously injured and Rs. 25,000 to those suffering minor injuries.

In Kolkata, Union Minister of State for Railways Mukul Roy said the families of the dead would be paid an ex-gratia of Rs five lakh, the seriously injured would receive Rs 1 lakh each and those with minor injuries were handed Rs 25,000 each.

Movement of the trains on the busy route came to halt following the mishap and several long distance trains were either diverted or cancelled, railway officials said.

Helpline numbers

The railways have provided helpline numbers for the relatives of the passengers. They are 0532-2408128, 2407353 (Allahabad) and 0512-2323015 (Kanpur).

The incident comes close on the heels of Chapra-Mathura express train ramming into a packed bus in Etah in Uttar Pradesh a few days back killing 38 people and wounding scores of others.