At least twenty wagons of a goods train derailed on Tuesday while passing through the Bilaspur railway division of Chhattisgarh. between Khongsara and Bhanwartank railway stations around 11.11 am. The accident disrupted the movement of passenger trains on both the up and down lines of the Bilaspur-Katni section.
A team of officials from Bilaspur was dispatched to the scene and work remains underway to clear the track and restore the movement of trains. Railway officials indicated a probe was being initiated to determine the exact cause of the derailment.
Several key passenger trains were delayed or diverted in light of the accident. This included the Puri-Yognagri Rishikesh Utkal Express and Durg-MCTM (Udhampur) Express.
The incident comes mere days after one wagon of a track maintenance train derailed in the Bankura district of West Bengal. The goods wagon carrying ballast got derailed around 4:00 pm near the Piardoba station in the Adra-Midnapore section of the state. The incident affected railway services run by South Eastern Railway.
Prior to that, one coach of a passenger train was derailed on November 19 after being hit by a truck. The incident took place at the Rohini Nawadih railway crossing in the Deoghar district of Jharkhand. No casualties were reported.
“The gatesman was lowering the barrier of a level crossing when the truck tried to cross it and hit the train. Four wheels of the first coach derailed. However, no casualty or injury was reported,” Eastern Railways CPRO Kaushik Mitra told PTI.
Another derailment — this time in the Peddapalli district of Telangana — had also prompted the cancellation of 39 passenger trains on November 12. Twelve wagons of the good strain carrying steel coils and iron rods derailed between Raghavapuram and Ramagundam during the night while proceeding towards Ghaziabad from Ballari in Karnataka.
(With inputs from agencies)
