PM announces additional ex-gratia relief for victims MP train derailments

“12 have died and 25 were injured in Madhya Pradesh twin train derailment”. He said that railway workers would soon start repairing the tracks so traffic can resume. We did not know how to get out of it. Some jumped out of the window. The coaches landed in awkward angles, making the search operation hard for divers looking for bodies in the river.

The incident took place when Varanasi-bound Kamayani Express from Mumbai and the Mumbai-bound Janata express that originated from Patna were crossing the flooded tracks on a railway bridge in the district and plunged into the swollen Machak river.

While terming the accident ‘sad, ‘ Muniyappa said, “Of course, we have to compete with China but first railway tracks should be corrected and the speed should be pushed up to 160”.

Television footage showed a line of carriages lying on their sides and on top of each other in a field of mud. However, the toll has been put at 24 by a Madhya Pradesh government spokesperson at the accident site. Rescuers were dispatched quickly but had to work through the night in mostly dark conditions, with flood waters hindering their efforts.

The rain eased Wednesday following two days of heavy downpour. “I thank god that I am alive”, she said.The shaken survivors said they were jolted out of their sleep when their coach fell into the river with a roar. In overnight operations made hard by heavy rain and flooding, over 300 people were rescued.

Replying to demand by Congress general secretary Digvijaya Singh that he should resign, the railway minister said, “This does not even deserve any comment because in such a situation somebody wants to play politics”.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi has expressed condolences to the families of the victims.

India’s railway network, one of the world’s largest, is still the main form of long-distance travel in the vast country, but it is poorly funded and deadly accidents are frequent. Earlier this year, Modi’s government had announced plans for a $137 billion overhaul of the railway’s crumbling infrastructure over the next five years.

The express services had been heading in opposite directions when some of their carriages came off the rails as they crossed a bridge in Madhya Pradesh state.