Death toll mounts to 51 in Kalka Mail mishap; 247 injured

The death toll in the derailment of 15 coaches of the 12311-Up Howrah-Kalka Mail near Malwan railway station in Uttar Pradesh yesterday has reached 51 after more bodies were recovered from the coaches during the night-long rescue operation which is continuing round the clock.

Superintendent of Police Ram Bhorase told UNI that 51 people had died so far in the accident. He said the bodies of 37 of the victims had been retrieved from the mangled coaches while 14 people had succumbed to their injuries in hospital.

Mr Bhorase said the rescue efforts were still underway and more bodies could be recovered as the Army personnel were yet to search two sleeper coaches.

A body was recovered from a coach at 0615 hrs today while several others are still trapped inside other coaches, particularly S-1 and S-2.

A total of 247 people were injured in the accident, of whom 190 have been admitted to the district hospital here.

Chief District Medical Superintendent Dr Rakesh Kumar said most of the critically injured passengers had been shifted to Kanpur. More doctors and paramedical staff had been called in from nearby districts to cope with the crisis, he said.

Railway officials camping at the scene of the derailment said the tracks were expected to be cleared by late tonight.

North Central Railway (NCR) General Manager J C Joshi said normal traffic would start only after repair of the overhead electric wires which could take some more time.

Two helicopters of the Indian Air Force were rushed from Allahabad to speed up the rescue efforts yesterday, but light showers had hampered the work last evening. The Army has also sent an air ambulance to ferry the injured to hospitals.

A 150-member team from the National Disaster Response Force is also at the spot to help in the rescue operations.

Railway Board Chairman Vinay Mittal and other members of the Board as well as the Director General of the Railway Protection Force (RPF) had also reached the scene of the accident by last night and were monitoring the rescue efforts.

Due to the accident, train services on the busy Howrah-Delhi route have been severely affected and long distance trains were being diverted through Lucknow-Uchachar and other routes. Several down trains, including the Rajdhani Express, have been diverted through the Kanpur-Lucknow-Varanasi route. In all, 13 trains have been cancelled and 25 pairs diverted, Railway officials said.

The ill-fated Kalka Mail train, which left from Howrah on Saturday night, was scheduled to reach Kalka this morning via Old Delhi station.

This is the second major rail accident in the state during the past one week. On Thursday, 38 people were killed in a collision between a bus and a train at an unmanned level crossing in Kanshiramnagar district

NNN