A miserable calamity occurred on Monday as at least eight passengers were killed and more than sixty sustained injuries in the train tragedy where a goods train attacked the Sealdah-bound Kanchanjunga Express near Rangapani station in West Bengal. The collision gave rise to such compartments of the express train as the three rearmost ones were derailed.
The 13174 Kanchanjunga Express train was traveling from Agartala to Sealdah at the time of the incident, which took place at about 9 am just seven kilometers away from New Jalpaiguri station in North Bengal. It has been gathered that the accident occurred when the goods train rear-ended the stationary express railway line, which consequently caused the horrific accident.
The first impression is that the container train ran a red signal and hit the tail end of the Kanchanjunga train. The reason appears to be human-induced,” commented Jaya Varma Sinha, the Chairman and CEO of the Railway Board.
Emergency response teams are already on the ground working on the rescue as the badly injured passengers are rushed to the nearby facilities. They have been joined by West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, who has deployed senior officials and disaster management teams to the site to supervise the relief and search and rescue operations.
This devastating act has led to immediate responses from the government, like statements of apologies from Prime Minister Narendra Modi and President Droupadi Murmu. Later in the same month railways minister Ashwini Vaishnaw announced an increase in ex-gratia amount for the affected people.
Rs 10 lakh shall be provided to each of the deceased’s family members, Rs 2. As per the rules, the payment to the grievously injured will be Rs 5 lakh and Rs 50,000 to the persons injured slightly.
The accident has also affected railway transportation in the region, especially to the Sealdah Eastern Railway has established a control and a desk station, ‘Rangapani,’ to support ‘Kanchanjunga express’ derailed passengers.
People who managed to survive the crash have related their ordeal to how the accident happened and the rights they experienced in the delayed response to their rescue. While the investigation of the cause of the accident continues, New rail mishap in West Bengal:
The network in the eastern Indian state of West Bengal has been in the news for another rail accident, which only emphasizes the need for improving the safety and monitoring of this important yet vulnerable transportation artery in India’s growing economy.
