Two persons were killed and nearly 20 hospitalised after 18 coaches of the Howrah-Mumbai Mail derailed when its engine brushed against a portion of a goods train which too had jumped tracks a few minutes ago near Barabambo railway station in Jharkhand around 3.45am on Tuesday.

This was the third railway mishap in Jharkhand this year. Eleven passenger trains were cancelled and several others had to be short-terminated and diverted as traffic on the Howrah-Mumbai route was thrown into disarray.

According to the local Seraikela-Kharsawan police, the Tatanagar-bound goods train carrying clinkers had derailed on the down line (towards Howrah) a few minutes before the Howrah-Mumbai Mail came on the up line (towards Mumbai). The mail’s engine grazed the goods train.

“Nearly 18 coaches of the Howrah-Mumbai Mail jumped tracks because of the impact near Potobera village between Rajkharsawan and Barabambo railway stations (both in the Seraikela-Kharsawan district of Jharkhand). The area falls under the Chakradharpur railway division of South Eastern Railway, about 80km from Jamshedpur,” said a senior police officer at Seraikela-Kharsawan involved in the rescue operation.

Seraikela-Kharsawan superintendent of police Mukesh Kumar Lunayat said two bodies were extricated from the train during the rescue operation, which is being jointly carried out by the police from multiple districts, a team from the National Disaster Relief Force from Ranchi and the Jharkhand Armed Police.

“Nearly 30 people who had suffered minor bruises were given medical assistance at the makeshift camp at the mishap site while 18 people were shifted to the Chakradharpur Railway Hospital,” said Lunayat.

Om Prakash Charan, the chief public relations officer (CPRO) of South Eastern Railway, confirmed the two casualties.

“The deceased were residents of Rourkela (P. Vikash Rao, 28, and Ajit Kumar Samal, 34). They were travelling in B4 (three-tier AC). The railways has paid the kin of each deceased an ex gratia of ₹10 lakh. We have also paid an ex gratia of ₹1 lakh to the injured. The remaining passengers were sent in buses and a special train to their destinations from Chakradharpur railway station,” said Charan.

He, however, said that the reason behind the mishap would be known after a thorough probe. “The chief commissioner of railway safety will be probing the incident and the exact reason can only be known after the investigation. As of now, the goods train and the Howrah-Mumbai Mail had derailed at the same site near Barabambo station. Work is being carried out in full swing to restore railway traffic on the route at the earliest,”
said Charan.

The local police at the spot said that the collision between the two trains was so strong that even the tracks were uprooted and the overhead wires were damaged. Several passengers had to be taken out by breaking the windows of the AC coaches.

On January 18, four people were killed after being hit by the Utkal Express at Gamharia railway station. On February 28, two people died in a train mishap between Jamtara and Vidyasagar stations.

The JMM, which is heading a coalition government in Jharkhand with the Congress and the RJD, slammed the Centre over the latest mishap.

Through a social media post, the JMM urged the Centre to ask the railways minister to stop making reels and pay attention to the railways.

JMM legislator and chief minister Hemant Soren’s wife Kalpana urged the JMM and INDIA bloc workers to extend help to the district administration in carrying out relief and rescue operations besides providing water and food to
the victims.

Additional reporting by PTI