Chapra, Bihar: The railway authorities have confirmed sabotage by the Maoists in the Delhi-Dibrugarh Rajdhani express accident that took place on Wednesday morning, while the MHA and Chapra’s DM ruled out the possibility of any sabotage. Home Minister Rajnath Singh issued a statement saying it was too early to blame any group for the unfortunate accident. Three timer bombs were recovered a few kilometres away from the location where the train was derailed. The red rebels had called for a bandh and blockade in the area today.
Twelve compartments of the Delhi-Dibrugarh Rajdhani express were derailed on early Wednesday morning at Golden Ganj station near Chapra, killing four passengers and injuring 23 others.
The accident took place around 2 am in the morning, five coaches of the train overturned in the derailment while seven others got derailed at the station, which is almost 75 kms from Patna.
Railway minister Sadanad Gowda is reported to have reached Patna to visit the accident site. In his statement to the media on Wednesday morning he expressed grief over the loss of lives in the unfortunate mishap. He directed the Railway administration to render best possible treatment to the injured passengers and also to avoid mistakes in hospitals regarding the standard of the treatment.
Senior officials of East Central Railway and medical team rushed to the site and were supervising the relief and rescue operations, injured are being rushed to the hospital.
The railway authorities have announced an ex-gratia compensation of Rs. two lakh to the kin of those dead. The seriously injured passengers will get Rs. one lakh each while those with minor injuries will receive Rs. 20,000 each.
Helplines have been set up to provide information to families of the victims and other passengers at Chapra, Samastipur, Hajipur, Sonpur, Barauni, Muzaffarpur, Lucknow, Varanasi, Balia, Guwahati, Dibrugarh, Tinsukia, Mariani, Dimapur, Lumding, New Coochbehar, New Jalpaiguri and Katihar.
Helpline Numbers:
New Delhi: 011-23342954, 23341074
Chhapra: 06512-43409
Hajipur: 06224-272230
Muzaffarpur: 0621-2213034
Varanasi: 0542-2503814
Lucknow: 09794830976