At least 35 passengers were killed and over 200 injured when 15 bogies of a speeding Delhi-bound Kalka Mail derailed in Fatehpur on Sunday -- the second major train mishap in a week in Uttar Pradesh.
The derailment took place at 12.20 pm when the packed train from Howrah reached near Malwa station, nearly 120 kms from Lucknow.
Railway Board Chairman Vinay Mittal, who rushed to the accident site, said the cause for the derailment was being ascertained.
According to preliminary investigations, the signals were functioning normally and the fish plates on the tracks were intact.
To a question, Mittal said the driver was not drunk.
"I can't comment," he said on being asked whether he suspected mischief.
Fifteen bogies of the train were derailed out of which 10 are in bad shape. The exact cause of the derailment is being ascertained.
"The Commissioner of Railway Safety has been directed to probe the incident," General Manager, North Central Railway, H C Joshi said.
He said the train was moving at nearly 108 km/ph when the accident occurred.
"It was almost moving at the speed of 108 km/ph which is full speed," Joshi said.
Chief Medical Officer, Fatehpur, KN Joshi said, "Thirty five of the passengers have died. Nearly 200 injured are undergoing treatment here."
"Rescue workers have not been able to enter two of the bogies," Superintendent of Police, Fatehpur, Ram Bharose said, adding the dead included women and
While some of the bogies had toppled, others were turned into a mangled heap of metal. Gas cutters and other equipment were used to slice through the metal in the AC and other coaches to rescue the trapped passengers.
On July 7, the Mathura-Chhapra Express had crashed into a bus carrying a marriage party at the Adhurpur unmanned railway crossing at Kanshiram Nagar, about 250 km from Lucknow, leaving 38 bus passengers dead.
In today's mishap, 15 out of the total 24 compartments derailed in the accident, of which 10 bore the maximum brunt. Of these, six air-conditioned coaches were affected.
While one AC 3-tier coach had turned turtle, another coach was pushed to its top with the impact of the train speeding at about 108 km per hour. Two other AC coaches banged against each other and stood almost vertically.
The army has also sent about 120 personnel from adjoining Allahabad and Kanpur to assist in the relief operations.
A team of the National Disaster Relief Force was also deployed. Some of the seriously injured passengers were flown to Kanpur by helicopters, Fatehpur District magistrate Mahendra Kumar said.
Two relief trains -- one each from Allahabad and Kanpur -- were sent to ferry the passengers. Another relief train was also sent from Delhi, Minister of State for Railways Mukul Roy said, adding that help-lines have been opened at both Howrah and Delhi stations.
Roy said families of the dead would be given an ex-gratia of Rs five lakh, while the seriously injured would get Rs one lakh and those with minor injuries would be given Rs 25,000.
