The trains returned to circulation on Monday in the section where the worst rail accident in India of this century occurred on Friday, which caused the death of 275 people and left more than a thousand injured.
“Circulation on both railway lines was restarted 51 hours after the derailment,” reported the Ministry of Railways on the social network Twitter, sharing images of several trains leaving a station at night, in the presence of officials and workers.
The first movement of trains started after 51 hours of derailment on the downline at Bahanga Bazar near Balasore in Odisha. A train loaded with coal is heading from Vizag to Rourkela via this route. pic.twitter.com/QKWHvaSmoV
– Ministry of Railways (@RailMinIndia) June 4, 2023
The restoration of circulation occurs after the removal of the rubble of the 21 wagons derailed in the accident, which lasted more than a day, after concluding the search and rescue mission for the victims, the ministry reported.
According to the latest report from the health department of the state of Odisha, in eastern India, in addition to the 275 deaths already registered, the disaster caused 1,175 injuries, of which 344 are still hospitalized.
The accident occurred due to an error in the signaling system, which caused one of the three trains involved (two of them passenger) to change lines, as reported on Sunday by the Minister of Railways, Ashwini Vaishnaw.
“Who did this and what were the reasons is something that will be known during the investigation,” the minister said in an interview with the New Delhi television channel, quoted by the AP.
The Press Trust of India (PTI) news agency had already advanced that preliminary investigations indicate that the signal given to the Coromandel Express train to enter the main track had subsequently been withdrawn.
The train entered another line, known as the loop line, colliding with a freight train that was parked there, according to PTI.
The accident occurred at 7:20 p.m. local time (1:50 p.m. in Lisbon) on Friday, near a station in the town of Bahanaga, in the state of Odisha, 1,600 kilometers northeast of the capital, New Delhi.
Ten to 12 carriages of a train derailed and the wreckage of some of the carriages fell on a nearby track, said Indian Railways spokesman Amitabh Sharma.
This debris, added the official, hit another passenger train, which was traveling in the opposite direction. A third freight train was also involved in the accident.
Source: TSF
