At least three persons, including a woman, were killed and 34 others injured, some of them seriously after an overhead colonial-era water tank collapsed over waiting passengers at Burdwan Railway station about 110 km from Kolkata.
The accident occurred at about 12.10 pm Eastern Railways sources said adding the tank built in 1890 could store about 58,400 gallon of water.
“Today an overhead water tank on platform numbers 2 and 3 at Burdwan railway station collapsed, killing three people and injuring 27 others,” the city SP said, adding that the injured had been shifted to the Burdwan Medical College and Hospital.
“Some passengers were waiting for a local train to arrive when the tank collapsed suddenly … literally trapping under it about 35-40 people … the Railways staff including the Railway Protection Force immediately rushed to the spot and conducted the rescue operations,” a senior official said. According to the officer, the water tank was made of corrugated metal sheets.
“The Railways have rushed in senior doctors from Kolkata BR Singh Hospital — an Indian Railways facility — to Burdwan,” Eastern Railways Chief Public Relations Officer S Mitra said adding the Railways would provide all kinds of assistance including treatment to the victims.
The accident disrupted services at the junction. Speaking on the reason for the collapse the CPRO said that things could be ascertained only after an inquiry. “Authorities have ordered a probe into the tank collapse and suspended work of three employees,” a senior official said.
A similar accident had taken place three years ago when a portion of the old colonial structure of the Burdwan junction had collapsed, injuring several persons.
Meanwhile, local Trinamool Congress MLA Khokan Das accused the Narendra Modi Government of neglecting the safety and security of Indian Railways. “Modi ji is interested in stunt politics … increasing fares … but not appointing new staff … about 3.5 lakh posts are vacant
in the Indian Railways out of which about 1.7 lakh is in the safety and security department,” he said.
Alleging that there was grave deficit of maintenance insofar as the overhead tank was concerned he said, “it is a 133 year old tank which is seldom maintained … the policy of this Government is to only announce so-called premium trains like Vande Bharat etc but doing nothing about preserving the lives of the common man who travel in the trains … you saw what happened in Odisha and UP.”
The BJP however defended the Indian Railways saying “freak accidents were not out of ordinary in a country.” A senior State BJP leader said that the accident was the result of a few negligent officials and not the policy decisions taken by the Railway authorities.
