Law Kumar Mishra
Patna: In a major train accident, 107 people were killed and over 150 injured when 14 coaches of 19321 Indore -Rajendranagar ( Patna)weekly express derailed at Pokhariyan between Orai and Kanpur railway stations at 3.15 am on November 20. Army has reached to nahelp railways and civil administration in relief and rescue operations.
Iftekhar Alam, divisional commissioner of Kanpur, said the toll may go up as passengers are still trapped in two mangled coaches. There were 163 passengers in sleeper coaches and 74 in air conditioned coaches having reservations up to Patna. They had boarded the train at Indore and Bhopal stations.
District magistrate of Patna Sanjay Kumar Agarwal, who visited Patna junction, said tadministration has made arrangements to bring the injured to Patna and beds have been reserved in PMCH and NMCH. Railways have arranged a special train for the Patna bound passengers. Eight ambulances are waiting at Patna Junction. Death of one passenger Ramakant Dwivdei of Barbigha was reported by his relatives who reached Patna junction where a special inquiry booth has been set up on platform no 1.
Bihar CM Nitish Kumar talked to the DG of UP police Javed Ahmad and inquired about the accident. Principal secretary, Disaster
management department Pratyay Amrit also talked to his counterpart in UP and talked about relief operations. The CM directed the Bihar officials to remain in contact with their UP counterparts.
Gas cuttters are being used to cut bogies and bring the injured passengers out of the coaches. Some passengers in air conditioned
coaches made calls from their mobile sets to inform they were alive but needed immediate rescue. Manoj Sinha, minister of state for railways, reached the site of accident. PM Narendra Modi talked to the Railway minister Suresh Prabhu and asked him to provide immediate relief to the victims. The injured were being shifted to nearest Army hospital.