The Peruman railway accident occurred on 8 July 1988, when a train derailed on the Peruman bridge over

Ashtamudi Lake Ashtamudi Lake (''Ashtamudi Kayal''), in the Kollam District of the Indian state of Kerala, is the most visited backwater and lake in the state. It possesses a unique wetland ecosystem and a large palm-shaped (also described as octopus-shaped) ...

Kerala Kerala ( ; ) is a state on the Malabar Coast of India. It was formed on 1 November 1956, following the passage of the States Reorganisation Act, by combining Malayalam-speaking regions of the erstwhile regions of Cochin, Malabar, South ...

, India and fell into the water, killing 105 people. The cause was never established, but was blamed on track alignment and faulty wheels, possibly compounded by failure to notify maintenance workers about the approach of a delayed train that had been making-up time by travelling at excessive speed.

Derailment

The accident occurred at Peruman bridge over

, Perinadu,

Kollam Kollam (), also known by its former name Quilon , is an ancient seaport and city on the Malabar Coast of India bordering the Laccadive Sea, which is a part of the Arabian Sea. It is north of the state capital Thiruvananthapuram. The city i ...

, Kerala, on 8 July 1988 at around 13:15 Hrs. Ten bogie carriages of the Train Number:26 Island Express, travelling from

Bangalore Bangalore (), officially Bengaluru (), is the capital and largest city of the Indian state of Karnataka. It has a population of more than and a metropolitan population of around , making it the third most populous city and fifth most ...

Thiruvananthapuram Central Thiruvananthapuram Central, formerly Trivandrum Central (also known as Thampanoor railway station) (station code: TVC), is a major railway station which serves the city of Thiruvananthapuram (formerly Trivandrum), capital of Kerala state, In ...

, derailed and fell into the lake. Of the 14 coaches, only the

engine An engine or motor is a machine designed to convert one or more forms of energy into mechanical energy. Available energy sources include potential energy (e.g. energy of the Earth's gravitational field as exploited in hydroelectric power gen ...

, the parcel van and a second class compartment had crossed the bridge when the derailment occurred. Two of the nine coaches that fell into the water turned upside down.

Rescue operations

The rescue operations were started immediately by the local people of Perumon and Munrothuruthu who were residing near the bridge. The injured were rushed to

's district hospital and nearby private clinics. Realising the scale of the tragedy, three helicopters and over 100 navy divers were also pressed into service from Cochin, 140 km away. Union Minister of State for Railways

Madhavrao Scindia Madhavrao Jivajirao Scindia (10 March 1945 – 30 September 2001) was an Indian politician and a minister in the Government of India. He was a member of the Indian National Congress party. Scindia was the son of Jiwajirao Scindia, the last rul ...

, accompanied by Railway Board members, flew down in a chartered plane to supervise the rescue operations. Scindia announced an ex-gratia payment of

Rs. Rupee is the common name for the currencies of India, Mauritius, Nepal, Pakistan, Seychelles, and Sri Lanka, and of former currencies of Afghanistan, Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, the United Arab Emirates (as the Gulf rupee), British East Africa, B ...

lakh A lakh (; abbreviated L; sometimes written lac) is a unit in the Indian numbering system equal to one hundred thousand (100,000; scientific notation: 105). In the Indian 2,2,3 convention of digit grouping, it is written as 1,00,000. For ex ...

(100,000) each to relatives of each of the dead.105 people lost their lives and around 200 people were injured.

Cause

The exact cause of the accident is still unknown. ;Tornado A first inquiry conducted by the Commissioner for Railway Safety attributed the cause of train accident to a

tornado A tornado is a violently rotating column of air that is in contact with both the surface of the Earth and a cumulonimbus cloud or, in rare cases, the base of a cumulus cloud. It is often referred to as a twister, whirlwind or cyclone, altho ...

. This finding has been widely disputed by the general public. As per P. Venugopal, The Hindu newspaper's correspondent for Alappuzha district then ;Track alignment and faulty wheels A second inquiry, prompted by public outrage, revealed that problems in track alignment and faulty wheels of coaches were responsible for the tragedy.
The following possible causes, even though not officially acknowledged, have received widespread attention in media. ;Speed Some eyewitness are quoted saying that the train was running too fast for the bridge at the time of accident. ;Track maintenance work Some track maintenance may have been going on at the railway bridge. A report alleges the maintenance workers called up the nearest station and inquired about the passing trains. They were told that the Island Express which was due to pass is running late. The blog asserts the workers had lifted a section of rail and the repair was underway, then the workers went for a break, leaving the separated rail, assured that the train was not due. The train kept the right time and derailed on the bridge. The Truth about the Tornado
mytravelsmylife.blogspot.in Observation of Arunkumar (18-07-2022): I was traveling by road that night from Kozhikode to Trivandrum and was surprised by the number of Police vehicles and Ambulances on the road at that time of the night. It was only after reaching Trivandrum that I came to know about the nature & extent of the tragedy. To me,the possibility of track maintenance and taking a work-break by the workers (under the mistaken impression that the Island Express was running late) sounds more probable.

In popular culture

Perumon tragedy was featured in the 1990 Malayalam movie

Iyer the Great ''Iyer the Great'' is a 1990 Indian Malayalam-language psychological thriller film directed by Bhadran and starring Mammootty, Geetha, Shobana, Sukumari and Devan. The film was a commercial success upon release. M. S. Mani won the National F ...

. There is a short movie by Shankar Ramakrishnan that has been titled as " Island Express". The movie describes the connection of different people and their journey after the accident.

External links

* https://eparlib.nic.in/bitstream/123456789/818678/1/08_XI_27-07-1988_p146_p147_PII.pdf * https://eparlib.nic.in/bitstream/123456789/818710/1/08_XI_11-08-1988_p216_p252_PII.pdf

References