Lucknow, August 23 (The Hindu): In a second train accident in four days in India, 50 passengers were injured when nine coaches of the Delhi-bound Kaifiyat Express derailed in Auraiya district of Uttar Pradesh early on Wednesday.
The train travelling from Azamgarh to Delhi collided with a dumper at around 2:50 a.m. between Pata and Achalda railway stations, a spokesperson for the North Central Railway said.
The injured have been rushed to the hospital. Officials have rushed to the spot to provide rescue and relief operations to the passengers.
This is the second rail accident since last Saturday when Utkal Express had derailed in Muzaffarnagar district in Uttar Pradesh, killing 22 people and injuring 156.
458 killed in 1,394 rail accidents in 7 years
As many as 458 people have been killed in 1,394 train accidents in India in the past ten years, says a survey conducted by IndiaSpend.
Of these accidents, 51% or 708 were due to derailments according to the answer given in the Indian Upper House the Rajya Sabha (see Unstarred question 3473, March 31, 2017; unstarred question 3007, August 11, 2017.)
IndiaSpend had already reported on April 3 2017 that track failures and subsequent derailments were caused by the twin factors–excessive traffic and underinvestment in rail infrastructure.
As much as 40% of the Indian Railways’ 1,219 line sections are utilized beyond capacity, it was found.
Twenty nine train accidents were reported in the first six months of 2017, killing 57 people and injuring 58, according to this a reply given by the government in the Lok Sabha, parliament’s Lower House, on July 19, 2017.
Of the 29 accidents, 69% or 20 were due to derailment, claiming 39 lives and injuring 54.
The death toll in from train derailments in 2016-17 is now the highest it has been in a decade, according to an IndiaSpend analysis of data tabled in the upper house of parliament, the Rajya Sabha, on March 31, 2017 and August 11, 2017.
The derailment osf the Puri-Haridwar Utkal Express on August 19, 2017, killed more than 20 and injured over 200 people.
The toll of 193 dead comes during a year that reported the fewest train accidents over 10 years (104) ending March 2017; 78 of these accidents were derailments.
(The featured picture at the top shows the tangled bogies of the Kaifiyat Express)
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