A fracture in the rail line was responsible for the Howrah-Kalka Mail accident that claimed 70 lives last month, the preliminary report submitted to Railway Ministry, claimed.
Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, who on Tuesday met those injured in the Kalka Mail accident at a hospital in Kanpur, pulled up railway officials after the victims complained that they had not received the promised compensation.During his nearly 40-minute visit to Hallett Hospital, Rahul, who was accompanied by Union Coal Minister Sriprakash Jaiswal and senior rail officials, inquired about the condition of those undergoing treatment in the Burns, Emergency and ICU wards.
Over 100 people were injured when 13 bogies of the Kalka Express were derailed near Malwa station in Uttar Pradesh on Sunday afternoon. The train was on its way to Delhi from Howrah station in West Bengal. The rail traffic on the Delhi-Howrah line has been severely affected due to the derailment. Many trains have been diverted or cancelled. Relief operations have started at the accident site and rescue personnel are trying to get the passengers out of the mangled coaches.
The much-awaited Cabinet reshuffle due on Monday has been postponed, ostensibly after the Kalka Mail and Guwahati-Puri Express derailed on the same day, claiming more than 30 lives. The Congress is anxious about not sending a wrong signal in Uttar Pradesh, which is going to polls next year. Government sources said that as the prime minister was also in charge of the railway ministry, he was too busy overseeing relief to this crucial state.
Subhas Chandra Bose was under house arrest, yet he pulled out a daring escape from his Elgin Road residence in Calcutta to Germany via Pakistan, Afghanistan, Russia...
Amid concerns over increasing number of train accidents, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has sought a detailed safety plan from the railways.
New Railway Minister Dinesh Trivedi on Tuesday night faced protest from family members of the passengers injured in the Kalka Mail accident and was also heckled as he visited a hospital in Fatehpur.
Bharatiya Janata Party leader Rajnath Singh on Tuesday demanded the resignation of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in the wake of Kalka Mail accident which killed 69 persons and left 249 injured.
The toll in Sunday's derailment in Fatehpur, Uttar Pradesh went up to 53 with 15 more bodies, including that of a Swedish national, being recovered from the mangled compartments of the ill-fated Delhi-bound Kalka Mail.
It was a train journey that these passengers would certainly want to forget, but the memories of being trapped inside the ill-fated Kalka Mail and others screaming for help is unlikely to fade anytime soon. Nearly 167 passengers, who survived the derailment of the Delhi-bound express train on Sunday, arrived in New Delhi on Monday with horror tales to narrate to their relatives and media persons who were waiting for them at the railway station.
Trapped passengers screaming for help, overturned compartments and luggage strewn across the area -- this was the scene at the site of the derailment of the Delhi-bound Kalka Mail. Desperate to get out of the mangled compartments, some of the passengers were seen smashing the window panes as they tried to wriggle to safety.Fifteen out of the total 24 compartments were derailed in the accident, of which 10 bore the maximum brunt.
The Railways on Tuesday said the derailment of the Kalka Mail in Fatehpur two days ago, which claimed 68 lives, did not take place either due to emergency brakes being applied or because of a turning point. "From the inquiry so far, it is clear that the accident did not take place either due to emergency brakes or the turning point used to connect the tracks," said General Manager of North Central Railway Harish Chandra Joshi.
Six long distance trains bound for Howrah and Sealdah were delayed due to the bandh called by the Maoist Communist Centre and People's War in Bihar and Jharkhand.
The railways observed a week of Azadi ki Rail Gadi, from July 18-23, through 27 trains and 75 railway stations, across 24 states that are linked to the Indian freedom struggle.
On this day 167 years ago, the wheels of the first passenger train in the country from Mumbai to Thane started rolling.
A dense blanket of fog enveloped the entire North India affecting schedule of at least 70 trains and hitting road traffic adversely while there was no let up in cold wave on Saturday which claimed five lives in Uttar Pradesh and two in Punjab.
When trains and stations become desirable again, we might have a murder mystery with the Mumbai-Ahmedabad bullet train as a setting.
Successive plans have allocated less resources to the Railways.
The identities of the arrested militants were not revealed by police immediately and they did not rule out the possibility of more arrests.
LHB coaches are safer. Two high-level railway safety commissions came down heavily on ICF coaches, recommending their replacement by LHB, says Bibek Debroy.
Why is a Katra-Chennai train known as Andaman Express? Since no capitals are involved, why should a Katihar-New Jalpaiguri train be called Capital Express? What about Matysagandha Express, Padmavati Express or Sanghamitra Express?