At least eight persons, including the loco pilot, were killed and 14 others injured after a passenger train allegedly jumped a red signal and collided with a goods train from behind near Bilaspur station in Chhattisgarh on Tuesday, officials said.
Moments before the collision, Sanjeev Vishwakarma (35), a passenger of Gevra Road-Bilaspur train, was scrolling through his phone, while some passengers were busy chatting, and some were dozing off, unaware that within seconds, their journey would turn into a nightmare.
The accident occurred at 3.45 AM near Barabamboo, around 80 km from Jamshedpur, under the Chakradharpur Division of the South Eastern Railway (SER), they said.
'This is becoming the new normal. Accountability of @AshwiniVaishnaw ji is zero. The GOI has no answers whatsoever'
Suspected Maoists blew away a portion of railway tracks in the wee hours of Monday near Rourkela in Orissa causing derailment of a goods train and disruption of train services on the Howrah-Mumbai route.
The monsoon spelt mayhem in several parts of the country on Monday, particularly Mumbai where local train services and flight operations were hit and everyday life disrupted as well as Assam that was grappling with floods yet again.
Several trains under the purview of SER and ECoR were cancelled or diverted on Wednesday, including the premium Rajdhani Express and Vande Bharat Express, owing to the blockade by members of the Kurmi community in Jharkhand and Odisha, officials said.
The protest started at 6 am on Tuesday with the blockade of the old National Highway 6, which connects Kolkata to Mumbai, at Khemasuli in Kharagpur Local police station area by Kudmi Samaj West Bengal, they said.
Agitators squatted on railway tracks at various places, leading to cancellation, short-termination and diversion of several trains.
A rail track between Sonua and Lotapahar stations in West Singhbhum, under Chakradharpur Division of South Eastern Railway (SER), was damaged past Friday night in a blast that was allegedly triggered by the Maoists.
Suspected Maoists blew up a portion of railway tracks in Orissa in the wee hours on Wednesday causing derailment of a goods train and disrupting train services on the Howrah-Mumbai route.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi will visit the poll-bound states of Assam and West Bengal on Monday to launch and lay the foundation stones of several projects.
Rediff.com correspondent Indrani Roy Mitra and Photographer Dipak Chakraborty reached the accident site near Jhargram in West Bengal, where a Mumbai-bound train derailed, early on Friday morning. She chronicles the grim situation at ground zero and asks some tough questions.
The railway is not operating trains on Kharagpur-Rourkela section between 10 pm and 5 am.
Passengers on the Howrah-Mumbai Duronto Express had a narrow escape on Friday when its engine and generator van got separated from the rest of the train. There was no report of any injury to any passenger. The central buffer coupling (CBC) that attaches the coaches and the engine along with the front generator van snapped.
Anxious relatives of passengers in the Howrah-Mumbai Express, which was targeted by Maoists on Friday morning, are desperately calling up helpline numbers in Mumbai to know the status of their near and dear ones.Maoists blasted rail tracks in West Midnapore district in West Bengal in the wee hours of Friday, derailing 13 coaches of the Mumbai-bound Howrah-Kurla Lokmanya Tilak Gyaneshwari Super Deluxe Express. Five coaches were hit by a goods train, leaving at least 65 dead.
Naxals blew up a railway station, stormed another and are feared to have abducted two railway officials in Orissa's Sundergarh district early on Saturday, just hours before the 24-hour bandh by the ultra left began in five Naxal-infested states. Over 60 Naxals struck Bhalulata railway station, located on the Howrah-Mumbai route, and triggered explosions using landmines and powerful explosives, Inspector in-charge of Bisra police station C S Mohanty said.
'Duronto' trains, a non-stop service connecting metros and major state capitals, was announced on Friday by Railway Minister Mamata Banerjee.
A large number of passengers stranded at Rourkela railway station created a commotion on Wednesday morning.
Looking into the flexi-fare scheme in Rajdhani, Duronto and Shatabdi trains introduced in September 2016, the CAG stated that occupancy in all classes except the sleeper class in Duronto decreased.
Close to 5 lakh passengers travelling via the New Delhi railway station, the busiest in the country, will now be able to connect to the internet through the Wi-Fi service, which was launched at the station.
A total of 1,177 passengers are booked on the New Delhi-Bilaspur special train, which departed at 4 pm, while 1,122 passengers are booked on the New Delhi-Dibrugarh special train that departed at 4:45 pm.
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