Three Coaches of Ujjain Express Derail Near Rishikesh, Major Accident Averted

Rishikesh: A major train accident was narrowly avoided in Rishikesh on Monday night. At around 9:30 pm, three coaches of Ujjain Express derailed in Khand village area near Yog Nagari railway station. It was fortunate that there were no passengers in the train at that time, otherwise the damage could have been huge.

How did the accident happen? 

Initial investigation has revealed that this accident happened during maintenance. The train was standing in the yard. Routine checking was going on when suddenly the brakes failed and three coaches derailed. Now questions are being raised that who was running the maintenance time train?

How did such negligence happen? 

People are angry about this thing. The accident happened at 9:30 pm, but it is being said that senior railway officers reached the spot after two and a half hours. By then only local people had gathered there. Later the GRP people came and removed the crowd and vacated the track. Railways has said that an investigation has been set up and the entire truth will be revealed.

Was this the third train accident in two days?

This is not an isolated case. There have also been two incidents of fire in the railways in the last two days. A fire broke out in a passenger train on the Sasaram-Ara-Patna route at Sasaram station at 6 am on Monday. There was chaos on the platform. People ran to save their lives. The fire was controlled with great difficulty. Rajdhani Express also caught fire in Ratlam.

A coach of Thiruvananthapuram-Hazrat Nizamuddin Rajdhani Express 12431 caught fire near Alot station in Ratlam district on Sunday. There were 68 people in that compartment. Thankfully there were no casualties. There was no loss of life or property in either of the fire incidents, but fear spread.

What next?

Railways have started investigation in the Rishikesh case. But frequent accidents are raising questions on the negligence of railways. Sometimes brakes fail, sometimes fires. How are such big mistakes happening at the time of maintenance? What if there was a train ride? At present the track has been cleared. But fear has settled in the minds of people as to how safe rail travel is.