8 wagons derail as goods trains collide in Bengal; services hit for 4.5 hours
Within weeks of the devastating accident at Bahanaga Bazar station in Odisha’s Balasore a goods train collided with another stationary freight train in West Bengal on Sunday (June 25) morning. Luckily, no one was injured.
The accident took place at Onda in West Bengal’s Bankura district, said a senior South Eastern Railway official. Train services were affected in the Adra division of SER for over four hours, he added.
At least eight wagons derailed due to the collision, which happened around 4 am, the official said. Train movement at Onda in the Midnapore-Adra section of Adra division was restored at 8.30 am, after urgent repairs were carried out, he said.
Also read: Two weeks after Balasore, Odisha triple-train tragedy: A status report
The derailed wagons were removed from the tracks on a war footing, and the first passenger train to pass was the 18011 Howrah-Chakradharpur express at 8.35 am, he said.
At least 20 express and passenger trains were cancelled and some others were diverted via other routes due to the accident, he added.
The SER official said the likely cause of Sunday’s accident was that the driver of the moving goods train had overshot the home signal at Onda, which was red.
Also read: Triumphant Indian football team donates â‚ą20L to kin of Balasore train accident victims
The train then went into the loop line, for which the point was likely to have been set on the tracks, and hit the stationary freight wagons, he said.
An inquiry will be held to pinpoint the cause of the incident.
On June 2, three trains were involved in a deadly collision on Odisha, leaving more than 290 people dead and hundreds injured.
(With agency inputs)
