On January 21, 2017, the
Hirakhand Express 18448, a scheduled passenger
train
In rail transport, a train (from Old French , from Latin , "to pull, to draw") is a series of connected vehicles that run along a railway track and Passenger train, transport people or Rail freight transport, freight. Trains are typically pul ...
from
Jagdalpur
Jagdalpur is a city in Bastar district in the Indian state of Chhattisgarh. Jagdalpur is the administrative headquarters of Bastar District and Bastar Division. It was earlier the capital of the former princely state of Bastar. It is the fo ...
to
Bhubaneswar
Bhubaneswar (; ) is the capital and largest city of the Indian state of Odisha. The region, especially the old town, was historically often depicted as ''Ekamra Kshetra'' (area (''kshetra'') adorned with mango trees (''ekamra'')). Bhubaneswar is ...
, derailed near the village of
Kuneru in
Vizianagaram
Vizianagaram is a city and the headquarters of Vizianagaram district in the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh. It is central Eastern Ghats, about west of the Bay of Bengal and north-northeast of Visakhapatnam. The city has a population of 228,02 ...
,
Andhra Pradesh
Andhra Pradesh (, abbr. AP) is a state in the south-eastern coastal region of India. It is the seventh-largest state by area covering an area of and tenth-most populous state with 49,386,799 inhabitants. It is bordered by Telangana to the ...
, India, killing 41 people and injuring 68 others. The train was carrying 600 passengers.
Derailment
The diesel engine of the train and nine cars derailed around 11 p.m. local time.
Three cars derailed with enough force to leave the roadbed entirely,
and some collided with a freight train on a parallel track.
According to a district fire department official, some of the casualties were a result of a stampede within the train as passengers tried to flee after the crash.
Emergency teams worked intensively to locate and rescue survivors from the crash, said the National railway spokesman Anil Saxena.
Aftermath
The first rescue workers reached the site of the crash 40 minutes after the train derailed.
Rescue and recovery work continued until the next day, while repairs to the track were completed by the morning of 23 January.
Indian Railways
Indian Railways (IR) is a statutory body under the ownership of Ministry of Railways, Government of India that operates India's national railway system. It manages the fourth largest national railway system in the world by size, with a tot ...
said that it would pay
₹200,000 to the families of those killed in the crash and ₹50,000 to injured passengers,
while the government of Odisha announced that it planned to pay ₹500,000 to families of the dead.
Investigation
According to
Andhra Pradesh
Andhra Pradesh (, abbr. AP) is a state in the south-eastern coastal region of India. It is the seventh-largest state by area covering an area of and tenth-most populous state with 49,386,799 inhabitants. It is bordered by Telangana to the ...
Chief Minister
N. Chandrababu Naidu, investigation of the accident, in conjunction with India's Railway Safety Commissioner, started on January 22.
Director General of Police K.B. Singh said there was no evidence of sabotage of the track involved, though unnamed railroad officials had initially hypothesized such.
See also
*
Pukhrayan train derailment
*
List of deadliest rail accidents
*
List of Indian rail incidents
Railway accidents may be classified by their effects, e.g.: head-on collisions, rear-end collisions, side collisions, derailments, fires, explosions, etc. They may alternatively be classified by cause, e.g.: driver and signalman error; mechani ...
References
{{Portal bar, India, Trains
2017 disasters in India
History of Andhra Pradesh (2014–present)
2010s in Andhra Pradesh
January 2017 events in India
Railway accidents in 2017
Railway accidents and incidents in Andhra Pradesh
Vizianagaram district
Derailments in India