Jamshedpur/Ranchi/Chaibasa/Kolkata: Two persons were killed and 22 others injured after 18 coaches of the Howrah-Mumbai Mail derailed in Jharkhand's Seraikela-Kharsawan district early on Tuesday, officials said.
The accident occurred at 3:45 AM in Potobeda village near the Barabamboo station in the Kharsawan block, they said.
South Eastern Railway spokesperson Om Prakash Charan said there was another derailment of a goods train nearby.
"At least 18 coaches of the 22-coach 12810 Howrah-Mumbai Mail via Nagpur derailed near Barabamboo station in SER's Chakradharpur Division," he said.
Of these, 16 were passenger coaches, one power car and one pantry car, Charan said.
"Two persons were killed and 20 injured as 18 coaches of the Howrah-Mumbai Mail derailed near Barabamboo," West Singhbhum Deputy Commissioner Kuldeep Chaudhary, who is camping at the accident site, told PTI.
All rescue and relief operations were completed within a few hours after the accident as teams of state police, district administration and Central Reserve Police Force rushed to the spot, Lunayat said, denying the possibility of any act of sabotage by Naxalites.
One wagon of the goods train had derailed and fell on other tracks on which the Howrah-Mumbai Mail was coming, he said, adding that the passenger train hit the wagon, resulting in the derailment of 18 coaches.
West Singhbhum Deputy Commissioner Kuldeep Chaudhary was at the accident site and oversaw the rescue work.
The accident site is near the border between West Singhbhum and Seraikela-Kharsawan districts.
"The injured passengers were provided medical aid in Barabamboo. They were taken to Chakradharpur for better treatment," another senior SER official said.
The railways made an ex-gratia payment of Rs 10 lakh each to the kin of the two deceased passengers of the 12810 Howrah-Mumbai Mail, the South Eastern Railway said.
The railways also paid Rs one lakh each to the eight people who suffered minor injuries.
The SER said in a statement that the kin of the deceased passengers - P Bikash and Ajit Kumar Samal, both from Odisha's Rourkela - were granted an ex-gratia of Rs 10 lakh each.
Former Odisha chief minister Naveen Patnaik condoled the death of two persons from Odisha in the derailment of the Mumbai-Howrah Mail in Jharkhand.
The railways also announced an inquiry into the train accident, the SER official said.
"The accident will be probed by a team, headed by Commissioner, Safety, Railways ", Aditya Kumar Choudhary, Senior DCM, Chakradharpur, SER told PTI.
He said, "All the passengers have been evacuated from the site. After the rescue, we are now focusing on relief operations and restoration of train movement on the three tracks." SER General Manager Anil Kumar Mishra said it would take 18 to 20 hours to restore train movement on the tracks.
The goods train that was derailed was on its way to Raipur from Tatanagar, he said.
"The two passengers, who lost their lives in the accident, were near the toilets of the coaches," he added.
As per the eyewitnesses, the impact of the accident was such that some coaches of the passenger train had been mangled after hitting the goods train.
Jharkhand Police spokesperson and IG (Operations) Amol V Homkar said the police and administrative officers of East Singhbhum, West Singhbhum and Seraikela-Kharsawan districts "coordinated well with the railway authorities soon after the Amda Police Outpost in-charge informed officials about the accident, resulting in faster rescue and relief operations".
Amda officer-in-charge along with the force rushed to the spot soon after getting information about the accident around 4 pm, he added.
Jharkhand Health and Disaster Management Minister Banna Gupta, who visited the accident site, told media persons that the Jharkhand government was extending full cooperation to the railways.
“Such major accidents are a cause of concern", he said, urging the Centre to "augment infrastructure instead of talking about bullet trains".
Jharkhand Chief Minister Hemant Soren directed officials to extend all possible cooperation to railways for relief work.
He also announced an ex gratia of Rs 2 lakh each to the kin of the deceased in the train accident and Rs 50,000 each to those injured.
According to the railway CPRO, rescue and relief operations have been completed.
"Most passengers were sent to Chakradharpur railway station, and further sent to their destinations by a special train from Chakradharpur at 12.15 pm," an official said.
East Singhbhum Deputy Commissioner A Mittal said all necessary actions were taken to expedite relief and rescue operations.
JMM legislator and Chief Minister Hemant Soren's wife Kalpana Soren urged the JMM and I.N.D.I.A. bloc workers to extend help to the district administration in carrying out relief and rescue operations besides providing water and food to the victims.
Eyewitnesses said people from nearby villagers had rushed to the accident spot and extended full cooperation in rescue and relief operations.
The SER cancelled 11 express and passenger trains owing to the accident, including Howrah-Titlagarh-Kantabanji Express, Kharagpur-Jhargram-Dhanbad Express, Howrah-Barbil-Howrah Jan Shatabdi Express, Tatanagar-Itwari Express and Shalimar-LTT Express.
Six other trains were either short-terminated or diverted, the official said.
The South Eastern Railway has opened helpline numbers for passengers.