Headlines
Nine dead as train derails near Bengaluru
Bengaluru, Feb 13
Nine passengers were killed
and 10 others seriously injured when nine coaches of the
Bengaluru-Ernakulam Inter-City Express derailed in Karnataka early
Friday, an official said.
The victims included five men, three women and a nine-year-old boy.
Of them, five were from Bengaluru and one each from Coimbatore in Tamil Nadu and Kollam, Palakaad and Thrissur in Kerala.
As
it was a day train with chair cars, the zonal railway did not have the
full list of passengers travelling in the express, especially in the two
compartments that were unreserved and bore the brunt of the derailment
which occurred at 7.35 a.m. after the train left Anekal station towards
Hosur near the border with Tamil Nadu.
"The derailment led to two
coaches (eighth and ninth) telescoping into each other, resulting in
nine fatalities and severe injuries to 10 co-passengers during the
journey," a railway official told IANS here.
Bodies of all the
victims were extricated from the twin coaches and the injured were taken
to hospitals at Anekal and Bengaluru for emergent treatment.
The bodies were later shifted to a state-run hospital in the city for identification by their relatives Saturday.
A
National Disaster Relief Force (NDRF) team conducted the rescue and
relief operations at the accident site, while the stranded passengers
were shifted to Anekal, Hosur and Bengaluru in state-run transport buses
for their onward journey.
The express train departed from the
main city station here at 6.15 a.m. and had covered only 45 km when the
disaster struck between Anekal road and Hosur town on the state border.
Railway
Minister Suresh Prabhu, who flew into Bengaluru with Railway Board
Chairman A.K. Mital late afternoon, met the injured passengers in the
hospitals at Anekal and Bengaluru.
He also announced Rs.2 lakh compensation to the families of each victim and Rs.50,000 to each of the grievously injured.
The minister ordered an inquiry to ascertain the cause of the accident.
Though
cause of the derailment has not been known, Prabhu told reporters
quoting the diesel engine driver that a boulder fell on the single track
which could not be seen from a distance due to foggy conditions in the
area.
"The first nine coaches of the train went off the track
after the engine hit the boulder and derailed," he said, citing the
driver's statement.
South Western Railway (SWR) general manager
P.K. Saxena, however, said a thorough investigation would reveal the
real cause of derailment.
"It is difficult to explain what
exactly caused the engine and the coaches to derail without proper
investigation into the incident," Saxena told reporters without
referring to the boulder aspect.
The SWR has set up help desks at the Bengaluru station and the accident site to assist the injured and the stranded passengers.
As
the sudden accident affected movement of passenger and freight trains
on the route throughout Friday, the SWR cancelled for Saturday three
passenger trains from Bengaluru to Hosur and one to Karaikal in Tamil
Nadu and diverted the Bengaluru-Ernakulam Intercity express and
Tirunalevali-Dadar Chalukya express.